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to avoid the conclusion that the administration is going to have to continue to walk this kind of political tightrope in increasingly difficult circumstances.
13.
For the sake of completeness, I should also mention Lu Ping's unwelcome intervention in the Budget debate in early March, when he said that in his view the Budget went against the Basic Law, because it did not follow the principle of measuring expenditure by revenue, and would add to the burden on Hong Kong taxpayers. Lu's comments were generally condemned as an ill- judged and ill-informed piece of blatant intervention. The possible reasons behind it have been analysed in separate correspondence. But one of Lu's motives, in line with a theme of this letter, was undoubtedly a desire to court electoral popularity for the pro China political forces. Significantly, Lu has recently launched a public appeal to the left to organise itself; and Tam Yiu-chong (who abstained in the vote on the Appropriations Bill) has announced his intention to form the long-awaited political party. We shall be very interested to see how Tam votes on the rates increase.
14. I am sending a copy of this letter on a personal basis to the Governor.
Yours ever, Flan
A R Paul
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