Beijing regarded former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa as 'a flawed manager' after the pro-democracy protest by 500,000 people on July 1, 2003, according to diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks whistle-blowing website.
Despite its reservations, the central government 'would continue to be supportive' of Tung and expected him to serve out his term, according to the dispatch sent from the United States embassy in Beijing to the State Department in Washington in mid-December 2003.
Tung resigned in March 2005, two years before the expiry of his second term, claiming ill health.
The cable quoted an assessment provided by Yu Jiafu, a former head of Xinhua news agency's international affairs section, and said that senior leaders 'recognise that he [Tung] is flawed as a manager of Hong Kong's problems'.
Tung's office did not reply to a request from the South China Morning Post for comment last night.
Yu was a long-time expert on Japanese and Korean affairs. He was jailed in 2009 for up to 18 years for selling state secrets to Japanese and South Korean diplomats.
