Inside Track
IT IS RARE this column has cause to praise Tung Chee-hwa. But miracles do happen - and so this week is an exception to the anti-Chief Executive tirades.
For it seems possible that Mr Tung may have at last mastered that most difficult of arts for any political leader, and one which always seems to have eluded him in the past. Namely, knowing when it is better to shut up than to speak out.
That was why his trip to Washington last week was a success. Not because of what Mr Tung said during his visit, but rather because of what he didn't. And not because the trip made headlines but instead because it didn't. Indeed, despite his Oval Office meeting with United States President George W. Bush on Thursday, the visit proved sufficiently unnewsworthy that it was pushed off many front pages by Beijing's bid for the Olympics.
Until now, Mr Tung has rarely missed an opportunity to come rushing to China's defence, regardless of how much of a Beijing puppet it made him seem. That was evident again only last month, when he marked June 4 by telling visiting foreign journalists - some of whom are barred from entering China - that they should go to the mainland to see how the current leadership is 'one of the most enlightened and progressive' in the nation's history.
And many of his previous overseas trips have been marred by a dogged insistence on defending Beijing's stance on everything from Taiwan to religious freedom. For instance, on his 1997 visit to Washington he parroted the Communist Party's stance that 'social stability is more important than individual liberty' - sentiments almost guaranteed to ensure a hostile reception anywhere in North America.
None of this has anything to do with his job, which is simply to be Chief Executive of Hong Kong. Under the Basic Law, he has no responsibility for China's foreign policy, or anything else that happens on the mainland for that matter.
Indeed, far from pleasing Beijing, veteran observers such as Professor Lau Siu-kai of the Chinese University of Hong Kong believe the central Government has been somewhat embarrassed at how such remarks have led to so much ridicule being heaped on a Chief Executive whom it chose partly in order to bolster Hong Kong's image in the US.
Now, it seems, Mr Tung may finally have learned his lesson, judging from last week's remarks - or rather the lack of them - while he was in Washington. Asked about the recent spy plane stand-off, which led to the most tense Sino-US confrontation in many years, he resisted the temptation to trot out Beijing's version of the incident, instead simply offering anodyne remarks about how the bilateral 'relationship is now moving forward in a very positive way'.
And Mr Tung was wise enough not to risk repeating before a US audience his recent denunciation of Falun Gong as 'undoubtedly an evil cult', or offer any further criticism of the spiritual group for that matter.
The result of all this biting of his tongue was not only an absence of hostile headlines but also a more friendly reception from Mr Bush, who said he hoped Mr Tung could give him some advice on how to deal with Beijing.
So perhaps the Chief Executive will learn from this that he can actually be of more help to China by not acting quite so obviously as a Beijing yes-man as he has in the past - even if this sometimes involves staying silent when he would rather be speaking out.
Danny Gittings is the Post's Editorial Pages Editor
