While much of the commentary about Vice-President Xi Jinping's visit has focused on how he admonished Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, telling him to govern 'sensibly and reasonably', one must hope that another reason for the Beijing official's visit was to learn.
Mr Xi is now the senior official in Beijing responsible for Hong Kong affairs, having succeeded Zeng Qinghong . It is therefore important for him to keep informed not only about the economy, although that is certainly important, but also about the Hong Kong way of doing things.
After all, if 'one country, two systems' is to be taken seriously, leaders in Beijing have to understand that the mainland system is different from that in Hong Kong.
And yet, from what Mr Xi said in his major address in Hong Kong, it appears that such understanding is not present. This is most unfortunate, especially since Mr Xi was accompanied by Liao Hui , director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. If anyone in Beijing understands Hong Kong, that person should be Mr Liao. He must have helped draft Mr Xi's major speech, or at least read it. In the speech, the vice-president called on the chief executive and his team to govern Hong Kong 'sensibly and reasonably' in order to implement 'stable and efficient' policies and overcome 'current difficulties'.
Mr Xi also called for 'mutual understanding and support among the executive authorities, the legislature and the judiciary' to maintain Hong Kong's stability and prosperity. The speech was given before an audience of top executive, legislative and judicial officials. Thus, it is clear that, in Mr Xi's mind, the chief executive's team consists not just of principal officials in the executive, but also legislators and judges, too.
There is no independence of the judiciary on the mainland and so it is natural, perhaps, that judges should be expected to support 'the executive authorities'. But such an admonition is not acceptable in Hong Kong. Here, the judiciary is not an extension of the executive - it can make decisions for or against the executive, depending on its interpretation of the law.
But such concepts are evidently still foreign to senior officials in Beijing, who tend to view Hong Kong through the lens of their own system. From Beijing's standpoint, the judiciary simply consists of officials who have different jobs but who all work for the same government.
