Kwok Ah-nui, the five-year-old girl at the centre of a controversial decision taken by Anson Chan Fang On-sang when she was director of social welfare in 1986, has since thanked the former top official for doing the right thing.
The former chief secretary revealed that Ah-nui, now 26 and living with a new identity, wrote to her a few years ago about the episode.
In 1986, Mrs Chan ordered the forced removal of the girl from her home following reports she was being kept a virtual prisoner by her mentally unstable mother.
The decision created a storm of criticism at the time. Last week, Choy So-yuk, a legislator from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, cited the case as an example of Mrs Chan's poor handling of a human rights issue.
In an interview with the Post, Mrs Chan said: 'Ah-nui said to me how much she has appreciated what I did for her and her mother. She told me she knows I'd suffered a great deal because of her. But she deeply appreciated that.
'She said I shouldn't worry about her. She would grasp every opportunity for education and would make something out of her life. She gave me an assurance she would for the rest of her life look after her mother.