The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club is planning to throw its oar in with the People's Liberation Army.
The PLA's top naval officer in Hong Kong after June 30 is to be invited to take up the post of Rear-Commodore, a club office currently held by the territory's senior Royal Navy officer, Commodore Peter Melson.
And the club hopes to forge as close a working relationship with the Chinese Navy as it has enjoyed with the Royal Navy.
Other changes suggested include replacing the Queen as the club's patron with President Jiang Zemin and having Chief Executive-designate Tung Chee-hwa replace Governor Chris Patten as vice-patron.
Club Commodore David Kong Cheuk-lun said: 'The Royal Navy plays a major part in helping the club: it shadows our fleet going down to international races; it relays radio messages between the fleet and yacht club when we are racing overseas; it inspects our moorings; and it helps us from a search and rescue point of view as well.
'So we will very likely, in keeping with tradition, invite the head of the Chinese Navy in Hong Kong to become one of our Rear-Commodores. And we hope that the Chinese Navy will do what the Royal Navy is doing for us right now.' Mr Kong said the changes were 'not politically motivated, but an act of courtesy' to China. Any approach to Mr Jiang to become club patron would be made through Xinhua (the New China News Agency). The club is still considering dropping the royal title, despite failing in the past to secure the 75 per cent of members' votes required.
