IN THE MID-1990s, I attended an editorial meeting at which one of the topics under discussion relating to the handover was 'Who will really run Hong Kong after 1997?'
The choices on offer were the head of the Xinhua News Agency (those were the days before that organisation was renamed the Liaison Office of the central people's government), the head of the People's Liberation Army garrison, or the Chinese Foreign Ministry's representative here. I was the only one who brought up the possibility that Hong Kong might actually be run by the Special Administrative Region government.
Recent events, however, have raised the possibility that the central government, which in the first five years after the handover had bent over backwards not to be seen to interfere in the day-to-day running of Hong Kong, may now be adopting a more hands-on approach.
I am not saying that Beijing did not interfere in Hong Kong's domestic affairs for the past five years. It certainly did, and President Jiang Zemin's early confirmation that he favoured a second term for Tung Chee-hwa as chief executive stands out as an example of gross interference, since the endorsement effectively resulted in no other candidate offering himself or herself for the post.
But it is true that as far as the daily running of Hong Kong was concerned, Beijing's representatives in Hong Kong had kept silent. Except, that is, through the communist newspapers that operate here, such as Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po, which are avidly read by SAR officials who wish to learn Beijing's attitude on various issues.
Picture of discretion