CONSPIRACY THEORIES always seem to sound so plausible - as this column knows only too well, having peddled its fair share over the years.
So it was almost inevitable that accusations of political payoffs should surface in the wake of the recent agreement at the Hong Kong-Guangdong joint conference to explore the development potential of Nansha, a little known area on the outskirts of Guangzhou.
After all, this is where tycoon Henry Fok Ying-tung has already invested up to $1.4 billion, by some estimates. And where he has grandiose plans to transform the former rocky swamp into a world-class city that would be a high-technology hub and shipping centre for the whole Pearl River Delta.
Such charges may have seemed plausible, since Tung Chee-hwa certainly owes Mr Fok a few favours. Shortly before becoming Chief Executive, he publicly expressed his gratitude for Mr Fok's leadership of the fund that rescued the Tung family shipping company from its financial difficulties in the 1980s.
And as vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Mr Fok must have played a key role in securing Beijing's backing for Mr Tung to become Chief Executive, and to be re-selected for a second term next March.
Although this conspiracy theory, like many others, sounds attractive, a closer look at the facts suggests a different story. For all that was actually agreed about Nansha at the July 25 joint conference was to talk further about how to encourage private investment. And that 'areas of co-operation might include the development of new high-technology industries, transport and logistics services'.
Such vague wording bears all the hallmarks of a classic bureaucratic fudge, as it contains no commitment to do anything, let alone spend any money on the project.