It was a refreshingly sunny May afternoon in Cannes. The La Croisette boulevard was awash with jet-setters letting loose amid the festivities of the city's annual film festival.
Cheery, and obviously at home in this cosmopolitan terrain, Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen emerged into the sunshine from the Hong Kong pavilion at the Marche de Film - the film market that coincides with the festival.
No wonder he was cheery. He had spent the past week speaking to his Swiss counterparts and World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy in Geneva. Then he whizzed through some of the world's best vineyards before descending into the French Riviera in a chartered private jet.
But that worldly image dissolved with a few words he used in an interview. It was as if he suddenly began reading soundbites from Her Fatal Ways, the 1990s satire that poked fun at the rigid behaviour of mainland cadres.
Mr Tang reverted to a language that is at odds with the international outlook he has always espoused. There he was, a US-educated industrialist, wine-lover and all-round bon vivant, resorting to a phrase that one commonly finds in Xinhua communiques.
It happened as he described his chat with Gilles Jacob, the president of the Cannes Film Festival. Mr Jacob, he said, gave Hong Kong cinema a 'high commendation' (go do ping ga in Cantonese - or gao du ping jia in Putonghua).
Mr Tang made the comment in a 10-minute interview with the South China Morning Post on his final foreign visit before he leaves his position to take over as chief secretary.