IN contrast with the freezing cold in Beijing, work on building a ''second stove'', or post-1997 government, has heated up.
Just weeks after Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen declared the second plenum of the Preliminary Working Committee closed last month, the pace of its five sub-groups' preparations for the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has been hectic.
The PWC's timetable requires its 57 members to return to the Great Hall of the People with their first reports in July. By then, the sub-groups must have preliminary findings on priority issues covering political affairs, the economy, legal, cultural andeducation matters, as well as law and order.
Against the backdrop of icy London-Beijing relations, the PWC sub-groups have served hot dishes in their first menu. For instance, as the Legislative Council began dealing with the partial bill on the 1994-95 elections, early this month the PWC's political affairs sub-group held its first detailed discussions on forming the first post-1997 legislature.
Its approach is two-pronged: while detailing electoral arrangements such as the new functional seats, the Chinese think-tank will also work out ways to reduce uncertainty after the pre-1997 Legco, ''unilaterally created by the British'', is disbanded at midnight on July 1, 1997.
That planning is considered political and strategically imperative now that the two governments prefer to go it alone in their plans for the pre-1997 and post-1997 political structure.
The PWC has shown it knows full well the ramifications of full-scale fresh elections of the three-tier structure. By defining the two lower tiers - district boards and the two municipal councils - as ''non-power organs'' it has paved the way for a more flexible and conciliatory approach in dealing with the transition of members of the two-tier councils in 1997.
