Talk about a lesson in politics: can anyone beat our premier's dance around Hong Kong this past week? Certainly not the chief executive. At every photo-op, there was the smiling, baby-hugging Wen Jiabao, with Tung Chee-hwa either out of focus in the background or obscured by the press pack.
But if being upstaged in the art of democratic survival skills by a supposed communist wasn't enough, Mr Tung had to suffer the ignominy of being told not to let down 'the people' as Mr Wen waltzed out of town just hours before half a million of them marched through the streets. And what they were protesting, unless I got this wrong, was legislation required by Article 23 of the Basic Law - a gift given to Hong Kong by the central government.
Personally, I feel for Mr Tung. It's not easy to play this game, especially when you are inevitably going to be compared to someone like Mr Wen. This is the man who was caught between former premier Li Peng and party chief Zhao Ziyang during the Tiananmen crisis of 1989 and survived to tell the tale. He knows all about mass demonstrations.
Indeed, he may look like a science professor, but Mr Wen has consummate political skills. Who else could have pulled off what he did this week in Hong Kong, while at the same time ensuring that some extremely important issues were being dealt with back in Beijing?
If you are not sure what I'm on about, consider this. While Mr Wen was walking around shaking hands in Amoy Gardens this week, two apparently contradictory developments were taking shape in Beijing. The first was that the investigation into property developer extraordinaire Chau Ching-ngai seemed to be hitting the skids. Huang Ju, the seventh-ranking member in the politburo standing committee, was appointed to oversee the investigation into Mr Chau's dealings in Shanghai, which took place - goodness me! - at the same time that Mr Huang was party secretary of the city.
The second was that the standing committee of the National People's Congress approved draft legislation strengthening the protection of ordinary citizens' property rights. So although people who claim they were denied justice by Mr Chau are not likely to see the walls of scandal come tumbling down around him, progress is being made that will hopefully protect their descendants from his descendants.