Prior engagements to the rescue as Anson Chan's diary clashes
It was pure coincidence, Anson Chan Fang On-sang insists, that she upstaged Donald Tsang Yam-kuen with her confirmation that she would join Saturday's pro-democracy rally.
It just so happened, according to the former chief secretary, that she was due to speak at a public function - a Unicef charity event - hours after the chief executive spoke on RTHK. She had deemed it an appropriate moment to clear the air over whether she would join the July 1 rally.
Not surprisingly, news reports of Mrs Chan's weekend plans overshadowed Mr Tsang's reminiscences on Letter to Hong Kong about his first 12 months in the top job.
Mrs Chan also had a ready answer when asked why she had declined to attend a banquet hosted by Mr Tsang the previous night for Jia Qinglin , the visiting chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
This was seen by some as evidence of tension between her and mainland officials since she threw her hat in with the democrats.
Not so. It just happened, the smiling one said, that she had a prior engagement: dinner with a visiting scholar from Harvard.
