A RECENT POLL by the Chinese University showed only a little more than eight per cent of people believed the Chief Executive was the best person to stand up for Hong Kong's interests with regard to the mainland.
Oh dear. Is this another sign that Tung Chee-hwa is nothing more than a puppet imposed by Beijing to rule over a restive Hong Kong, just as all the pro-democracy activists had predicted?
Not quite. If you look at these findings in the context of other opinion trends, the picture becomes a lot more complex.
The most striking change has been in the way the public views the mainland. Until fairly recently, people in Hong Kong looked at the mainland with a degree of suspicion. From this, it followed that the most important quality for a chief executive was to stand up to Beijing and preserve Hong Kong's way of life.
In the five years since the reversion of sovereignty to China, these fears have largely died away. Despite the storm created by the Hong Kong Government's request to Beijing for a reinterpretation of the Basic Law provisions on the right of abode in the territory, Hong Kong's autonomy and its freedoms have been preserved.
Opinion polls show the confidence of Hong Kong people in the central Government has been rising consistently. The latest such survey, by Hong Kong University, showed 45.6 per cent of respondents had confidence in Beijing, while another 6.5 per cent described themselves as very confident. A year ago, only 36.3 per cent had any such confidence.
This change in attitude is also reflected in other ways. As unemployment rises in Hong Kong, more and more people are actively considering living and working on the mainland. The queues at a recent mainland jobs fair in Hong Kong were a clear reflection of this changing mood.