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.