Japanese envoy scores points for diplomacy with Putonghua poser
Japan's newly arrived top envoy in Hong Kong, Shigekazu Sato, lost no time getting first-hand information about Beijing's latest thoughts on foreign relations. On Friday, less than two weeks after taking up his post, he emerged from the audience at a Chinese University conference to pose a question to Foreign Ministry head Lu Xinhua after Mr Lu made a speech. Mr Sato asked Mr Lu what Beijing would and could do to break the impasse over the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula. Not surprisingly, Mr Sato did not learn a lot from the seasoned diplomat. But he was seemingly flattered by the warm applause when he introduced himself and delivered his question in fluent Putonghua.
Tang needs thick skin for 'suicide tax'
Henry Tang Ying-yen has shown himself to be thick-skinned in the face of public criticism of the planned goods and services tax. The financial secretary maintains that the tax will be good for Hong Kong and people had better get used to the idea. But is his skin thick enough to withstand attacks from within the government where, we're told, colleagues are dubbing it the 'government suicide tax'?
Politics, mahjong no mix for Anson Chan
The conspiratorial talk about the 'handbag gang' led by Anson Chan Fang On-sang should have been laid to rest by the announcement of membership of her core group on political issues. The only joining member of the handbag gang - which meets regularly to dine and play mahjong - is former head of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Lily Yam Kwan Pui-ying. A well-placed source, identifying herself as a fan of handbags, revealed Mrs Chan is keeping politics out of the mahjong-table talk to spare her former civil service colleagues from being dragged into the complex issues surrounding herself and the chief executive.
