Like all good salesmen trying to insist their products are flawless, Chief Secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan has - at least for the time being - declined to consider amending the government's proposals for political reform.
His standard answer to questions about striking a deal with the pro-democracy camp by making concessions has been: 'I can't see any need to amend a proposal that has not come easily.'
As the game of brinkmanship between the government and pro-democracy camp has only just begun, neither side is prepared to talk about a compromise yet. But it is difficult to see how the package, as it is, can sail through the legislature without give and take by both sides.
For years, the pro-democracy camp has demanded that the district councils' appointed seats, which were reinstated after 1997, should be scrapped. But not only has the plea been ignored, the latest proposal has provided that these appointed members, along with their elected counterparts, will be given the right to choose five legislators and the chief executive.
Nor has the government acceded to the group's demand for a timetable towards full democracy. The government has only made a commitment to set up a panel on political development, under the Commission on Strategic Development, to examine how to attain universal suffrage under the principles of 'balanced participation'.
Mr Hui said the panel was not a stalling tactic, as it would have a precise work schedule to resolve real issues of political representation. But that schedule is not the same as having a timetable for when all legislators and the chief executive will be elected by popular vote.
Any pro-democracy politicians who are prepared to accept the current proposal risk losing their credibility and being vilified by their supporters for going against democratic principles.