When signs of reconciliation between Beijing and the pro-democracy camp surfaced in June last year, the then chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, was quick to dampen expectations of an early thaw. He warned that the process of unfreezing the icy relationship would be slow. He was right. Almost 11 months later, there has been only faltering progress in mending ties, defined more in symbolic terms than anything of substance. Indeed, there was symbolism aplenty in Shenzhen last Thursday for what was billed as a meeting between Beijing officials and the largest group of democrats since the 1989 Tiananmen Square bloodshed. Fourteen democrats joined a group of 200 community figures to meet mainland officials about the forthcoming Basic Law interpretation on the next chief executive's term. Among them were several prominent democrats who had been banned from the mainland. Two - Lau Chin-shek and Fred Li Wah-ming - were reissued with 10-year home-return permits. Mr Lau, a unionist and former Democratic Party member, faced scathing attacks from colleagues after he made high-profile calls for reconciliation last June. In November, he stepped down from the helm of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, a group which Beijing has branded subversive. Mr Li is widely seen as a moderate within the party, who advocates more dialogue and contacts with Beijing. In contrast, Law Chi-kong, a key Democrat legislator, received only a one-off entry permit. Dr Law still sits on the party's standing committee. The different treatment has not been explained by mainland officials. But one does not have to be an expert to make some sense of Beijing's strategy of 'watching the deeds and listening to the words' of each democrat. While indicating that its policy of reconciliation remains unchanged and that, in fact, progress is being made, Beijing has skilfully leveraged the democrats through the 'game' of contact and dialogue. Over the past 11 months, little steps have been taken by the central government to foster exchanges with democrats, ranging from the National Day celebrations in Beijing to a visit to the People's Liberation Army barracks in Hong Kong. Slowly and gradually, more democrats who had been denied entry into the mainland have been granted new permits. Barring unforeseen developments, the momentum of reconciliation is unlikely to be halted. From a tactical point of view, it makes sense for the central government to gain more friends in the pan-democracy force, which won a combined 60 per cent of the popular vote in last year's Legislative Council election. From a political standpoint, there is no fundamental conflict - such as ethnic or cultural divisions - between Beijing and most of the democrats. Even radical democrats would agree that the way to resolve differences over the issue of democratisation is to bridge the gap through dialogue. Referring to the Shenzhen meeting, one senior National People's Congress official, Qiao Xiaoyang , set a modest goal of 'facilitating communication' but not 'reaching a consensus'. It sounds realistic and pragmatic in view of the two sides' sharp differences over the move to interpret the Basic Law. But developments such as increased communication and the reissuing of home-visit permits will remain big on symbolism and short on substance if there is no genuine effort to bring about a meeting of minds. Chris Yeung is the Post's editor-at-large