The government has released the four potential designs for their very own theme park by the harbour.

Members of the public have been invited to vote on their favorite design in the next two months, after which a report will be submitted to a special selection board to be chaired by Chief Secretary for Administration Rafael Hui Si-yan for a final decision.

The models all seem to have lots of trees and water features, which should nicely block out the massive highway that will go past the front door while keep the governed an appropriate distance away from those that govern.

While it was OK to demolish the old Star Ferry terminal, nearby Queen's Pier is to be preserved. This will lead to the ludicrous situation where there will be a pier about 40 yards inland from the (fast diminishing) harbour. It will also be a pain in the backside to the government's plans:

The plan will cause a four-month delay to the CRIII contract, with a substantial prolongation cost. The reassembling of the pier structure would cost an extra $10 million. The overall cost estimate for this option is in the order of $50 million.

From The Standard:

The source said that as far as the government can see, it would be more practical to disassemble the pier and store its parts for reassembling in the adjacent open space outside City Hall or at a location, subject to public consultation.

Two articles from Internet Censorship Explorer on the reality and myths behind the Great Firewall: Why Exaggerate? and 30,000 Internet police in China myth, please not again!

(via ESWN)

It seems appropriate to mention Australia's 2-0 victory over China in a soccer international this weekend. And no need to mention the cricket, especially to our previously cocky Indian and Pakistani friends.

Meanwhile in results that were known before the event, Donald Tsang won the "election" for Hong Kong Chief Executive. It boggles the mind why The Don was overcome with emotion when the result was announced, given the result has been know for 2 years or so. It also boggles the mind how the TV news last night, and today's papers (including the redesigned SCMP) can spill so much ink and wasting so much hot breath analysing a result that hardly needs it. The most interesting point they could find so far was The Don managed 6 votes more than he expected. In other words the voting intentions were so well flagged the camps had the expectations down to an exact number. The North Koreas would be proud to run such elections.

Update

Check out the election coverage over at Asia Sentinel, which looks at the Hong Kong media's self-censorship.

This site has many clever readers. So I have a puzzle that needs explaining: why is North Korea so fixated over the US$25 million sitting in a Macanese bank? I understand that on principle they want their money back etc., but the Yanks have basically said they can have it and are working through the motions. So why did the Norks walk out of the latest nuclear talks, embarassing themselves and more importantly China too? Is the place that desperate for foreign exchange that US$25 million makes all the difference? Is it a trust issue? Or is it simply pretext?

Outside of the obvious observation that the Norks are not rational, any other explanations?

A site called World Politics Watch has got an article on Hong Kong's upcoming election.

And for your weekend reading there's the latest China Brief. The highlights:

1. PLA officers differ on China's aircraft carrier development.
2. Training the PLA in Civilian Universities
3. Anticipating Chinese leadership changes at the the 17th party congress
4. China' emerging domestic debt markets

Colloquial Australian have many uses of the word "piss", including to emphasise the weakness of something or alcoholic beverages. For example, "American piss is piss-weak". Bear that in mind while reading this from today's (unlinkable but soon to be improved) SCMP on a test done in some Chinese hopsitals:

Can analysis of a cup of green tea indicate that you are sick? The answer is probably yes - if you are having a test done at a hospital in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. Television journalists, investigating viewers' complaints that they had been overcharged in hospitals, passed off the tea as urine samples and submitted them for tests.

Six out of 10 hospitals, including two state-owned provincial-level ones, said they found white blood corpuscles or red blood cells in the samples and concluded that the "patient's" urinary tract was infected. Five of the six hospitals prescribed medicine costing up to 1,300 yuan. The Zhejiang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, rated one of the best in the province, suggested the patient undergo liver function tests.

"The samples were taken from the same cup of green tea. We later ordered a test for the tea and found no red blood cells or white blood corpuscles," said a Zhejiang Television Station journalist who headed the investigation. A biology professor confirmed blood cells could not be found in the tea, even though it might be contaminated, the journalist said...Several hospitals later blamed "low-quality lab technicians" for the scandal when confronted by the programme. They said microscope observations should follow a machine test of the urine sample, but some technicians might omit the procedure, or, in some cases, modify their own results to match the ones from the machine.

"They said something like `the technicians are of low quality. They trust the machines because they are very good and expensive'," the journalist said.

Zhejiang health authorities have ordered a thorough investigation of the scandal and told laboratory technicians to "raise their quality", but the case has stirred anger nationwide amid growing discontent over the mainland's failing health care system. "Patients have become automatic teller machines for the hospitals," read a commentary by Guangzhou-based newspaper the Southern Metropolis News.

Hong Kong's pollution has quickly become a major issue for the government. One of their easier opt-outs has been to blame those filthy mainlanders just over the border with their dirty chimney stacks belching out the smoke and soot that has become the bane of Hong Kong's air. One common urban myth is that pollution disappears during the 3 week long mainland holidays for New Year, May and October. The only problem is it turns out that Hong Kong itself is responsible for more than half of its pollution problem.

The government has pledged to deal with this scourge using "practicable measures" and that we should all relax because things are (cough, cough) getting better and "the [Environmental Protection] department reiterated that it has placed air-quality improvement on top of its agenda."

Bear that in mind as you try and pick out the skyline through the muck.

It seems curious in the extreme that ex-SCMP editor-in-chief Mark Clifford would choose to leave right about now. In the mail yesterday the SCMP kindly informed me they are revamping their paper and website. Doug has some more info on the changes and Brand Republic repeats most of the SCMP press release:

Leading English-language daily newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) is gearing up to unveil a new look on Monday in a bid to bridge its print and online products. The launch comes a week after editor-in-chief Mark Clifford announced he was stepping down from the role amid a series of recent staff departures.

The SCMP, which last redesigned three years ago, will display new typefaces which allow for longer, more detailed headlines, improved infographics to sit alongside news stories and a new colour scheme for each editorial section to identify the respective section.

Clifford, who is expected to take up a regional role with an NGO after joining the SCMP from The Standard in 2006, was one of the driving forces of the change, according to SCMP director of marketing Amanda Turnbull, who added that Clifford had managed the paper through a “tricky” period of change which saw the departure of several editors. “It was his decision to step down, and although the staff situation in recent months has been unfortunate, operationally he has been very good at helping us look at what we need to do,” she said. Editor CK Lau will take on additional responsibilities, and there are no plans to fill Clifford’s role.

The revamp, which was led by James de Vries of Deluxe Associates and SCMP production editor Ben O’Neill, also includes a number of secondary devices which are aimed at pointing readers to other sections of the newspaper, along with prompts to the SCMP’s online property, which itself is expected to relaunch with a new look in May. “It’s part of an ongoing move to give readers more access points, in conjunction with work that we’re doing in digital,” said Turnbull.

In perhaps one of the better examples of what is wrong with the (unlinkable) SCMP.com, there is no mention of the forthcoming redesign or changes to the online page on their own website.

To celebarte the 10th anniversary of the Communist takeover of the Big Lychee, the city is to receive two pandas from the motherland, romantically named 606 and 610:

A pair of young pandas - described as being "in love with each other since birth" and a gift from the central government to Hong Kong to mark the 10th anniversary of the handover - will arrive before May 1...

After the two young pandas have reached puberty, at the earliest by 2008, Hong Kong will be able to keep their babies unless the central government disagrees. "As long as [the babies of 606 and 610] are born in Hong Kong, they're Hong Kong permanent residents," Li said.

The SCMP report also includes a brief outline of the selection process for these pandas:

Feng Zuojian , the team leader, said five stringent criteria - age, physical condition, behaviour and psychology, look and genetic condition - were examined. One of the most important tasks of the team is to determine who the pandas' fathers are.

"Our genetic analysis has indicated that the two pandas we selected are following two bloodlines that have not crossed into each other in the past four generations," Professor Feng said. "Therefore they are suitable to be matched."

All Hong Kong residents know that the $1,000 note is the most worthless piece of cash on the planet. It is almost impossible to use the notes at any retail outlets (one notable exception is Canteen, which gladly beraks my $1,000 note for some grub and a wad of smaller, more useable denominations). In the past week there's been a proliferation of fake $1,000 notes, prompting the government to say "don't panic". Jake van der Kamp at the SCMP takes up the story:

...Few people really want these things [$1,000 notes]. For ordinary day-to-day cash transactions, the HK$1,000 banknote is much too big a denomination. It is an invitation to trouble from merchants and has always been so, not just in this latest counterfeit scandal.

But some people obviously do seem to want it. The 2005 figures from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (the latest available) say that in value terms the HK$1,000 banknote accounts for 53.6 per cent of the total banknote issue. This, by the way, is up from 39.3 per cent in 1997, which says not only that these bills are in high demand but that this demand has grown.

...the number of [$1,000 notes] in circulation rose from fewer than 40 million in 2000 to more than 80 million in 2005. Take note that we are talking here not of the value of these banknotes, but of the number of them - 80 million individual pieces of yellow paper, 13 apiece for every adult member of our population. Who wants them?

...Issuance of HK$1,000 banknotes has thus grown much faster than the overall banknote issue...Why did we need so much more cash in 2005 than in 2000 for every dollar of GDP we generated?

Perhaps it was because people stuffed cash into mattresses for a few years. Deflation during that period meant that the value of those banknotes actually rose and, with deposit rates at near zero, there was no reason to put the money in banks. The HK$1,000 banknote fits the purpose nicely - more money in the mattress with less bulge.

I think there is another explanation, however. The HK$1,000 banknote is the money launderer's banknote of choice in Hong Kong. Shuffling cash is a good way of hiding the proceeds of nefarious doings and, if you are doing nefarious doings in size, it helps to have a big banknote issued in size.

Would you care to comment, you people at the HKMA, about how our note-issuing banks seem so eager to accommodate money launderers? Could we have a police comment on this, too? Whatever the explanation, I think a good counterfeit scare actually has some welcome aspects. It scares mattress money out of mattresses, it makes life more difficult for money launderers, and it reminds the powers that be that shopkeepers have always had good reason to shun a certain nasty form of yellow paper.

The HK government has listened to the people and decided Hong Kong needs a cross-sector competition law. But some people were worried:

Some respondents from the business sector have expressed concern that although the aim of such a law is to maintain a competitive environment, small and medium enterprises may become the target of complaints when the law is in place.

Let's have a contest as to who the first target of the new commission might be. And more importantly, who might not be a target.

SCMP editor-in-chief Mark Clifford resigned yesterday after a brief tenure in the SCMP hot seat. Over at Asia Sentinel they nicely summarise Clifford's eventful reign at Hong Kong's best fish-wrapper. It seems an odd time to leave, given the pending redesign and new look SCMP.com, which most of Hong Kong doesn't realise is on the way or care about. Mr Clifford is off to join something called the Asia Business Council. There's a nice joke in there somewhere about an editor going back to his ABC.

Nice piece in The Standard on the impact of "urban renewal" on existing economies. The two sides of the arguement are simple to summarise: on one hand, you can't stop progress; on the other, why detroy local economies that clearly work. The first implies there is a market failure, but it's hard to see how the market has failed if local areas effectively develop their own specialisation that works to consumers and businesses advantage. But of course if it doesn't work to the property developers' advantage, that's a problem in "free market" Hong Kong.

Mike Poole talks about free trade and the Filipino maid over at Asia Sentinel. The article explores why helpers protested in Hong Kong last month, and notes:

This situation of chronic dependency is what Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen would call an “unfreedom”. He argues that freedom of exchange and of opportunity must be central to economic development. A country can build sustainable wealth, measured over the long run and not just a few decades, only when freedoms such as employment, adequate healthcare and education are in place to develop human resources.

That’s clearly not the case in the Philippines, but this notion of economic freedom is very close to the Pilipino word kalayaan, which implies social cooperation for liberty and its rewards. The problem in Hong Kong last month was that for one group of Filipinos, the home government tried to separate economic freedom from development policy, their kalayaan from their employment contracts.

A touch late with this news, but it turns out that one of the reasons for Japan's low birthrate is they don't do the horizontal folk dance often enough:

A record 39.7 percent of Japanese citizens ages 16-49 have not had sex for over a month — up 5 percentage points from two years ago — according to a survey published this week by the Japan Family Planning Association. Among married couples, the rate was only slightly lower, at 34.6 percent...

"The situation is dismal," Kitamura said. "My research shows that if you don't have sex for a month, you probably won't for a year."

Last time Japan's government tried to do something about this issue, it took them 50 years to offer a qualified apology and only 10 more to repudiate it. Maybe the government should sponsor the domestic p0rn industry instead to get those libidos going.

American sailors fall foul of Hong Kong's most notorious, says the SCMP:

What started as a show of old-fashioned American hospitality has revealed a dark side to Hong Kong's normally professional and respected taxi drivers. Sailors who caught taxis from Fenwick Pier in Wan Chai to the American Women's Association "meals in the home" programme last week were charged hundreds of dollars extra for short trips.

One driver claimed he would call police if the sailors didn't pay his overpriced fare, while another charged a group of sailors HK$483 - providing a fake, written receipt when challenged - for a ride that would normally cost about HK$40. Another group was stung with a HK$100 "night" surcharge, while yet another driver asked sailors to pay an additional "per person" charge on top of the HK$60 on the meter...

Mrs Ryback said the sailors were told not to get into trouble while ashore, so they usually paid rather than have the police involved."Not only does this hurt the visitors, it's worse for the majority of hard-working and competent drivers in Hong Kong," she said.

It's probably time to add to my Hong Kong taxi guide.

Some consultant has done a survey saying that Hong Kong is becoming an ever-worse place for expats, slipping behind Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney and Sierra Leone as a place to live. The city now ranks alongside Jakarta and Port Morseby in the expat stakes. The reason? That all pervasive air-pollution excuse.

This begs numerous questions, for example have the survey takers ever been to Port Morseby or Jakarta? But what is it about Singapore that makes it rank so highly compared to the Big Lychee?

Quane praised Singapore for consolidating the number one position. "I can't find another city that matches it in terms of personal security and safety. We have seen more and more companies and expatriates say they would prefer to relocate to Singapore because of the better facilities," Quane said.

That is despite the fact that Singapore ranks lower than Hong Kong in terms of press freedom and recreation, Quane added.

Or as an ex-Hong Konger recently commented, "in the end it boils down to only two things: low income tax rates and cheap plasma TVs. What else really matters?"

Update

More from our Sydney correspondent: "The only expats who really love it here are the backapckers who don't earn enough for taxes and/or plasma TVs to be factors in their equations - they just want cheap beer," and "Did they factor this in? Doesn't happen in Hong Kong, and wouldn't be allowed in Singapore."

Plastic money is coming to Hong Kong and Henry Tang tells us:

Experience in countries that have introduced polymer notes suggests that they are cleaner, more durable and more secure. They are also more environmentally friendly, since they last longer and can be recycled for other use.

China revealed last week that it is planning to set up an investment agency to manage a substantial portion of its massive foreign currency reserves. The new agency is expected to based on Singapore's Temasek Holdings, the Singapore Government's investment arm. As an investor, Temasek has been an excellent government entity. It has been estimated that Temasek has managed only a 3% annual return in it's 30 year history, making it worse than simply leaving the money on deposit at a bank. Their recent aquisition of Shin Corp in Thailand has managed to become a money losing diplomatic incident, which is pretty good for an investment company but not for its shareholder. Until recently Temasek (in theory, owned by the people of Singapore) didn't even disclose it's results.

But what does it mean for China? In the early stages, probably not much more than some accounting shuffling. Firstly, this is not new money - it already sits in SAFE's accounts. Most likely is this new agency will "buy" stakes in key Chinese companies. But in order to prevent an inflationary boom the money from this purchase will be steralised through the issuing of bonds. Secondly this is a political wheeze. These reserves earn 4 or 5% a year by sitting in US Treasuries. Politicians want better returns on these funds through investment. But do they really? China's problem (politically, at least) is it already generates too many US dollars. It has a quasi-fixed exchange rate and while China saves and makes more than the Americans, the Americans will continue to pay for both with their dollars. While the PBoC wants only a slow appreciation in the yuan and while China's capital account remains largely closed this can only continue. Thirdly, what else can this new agency invest in? They could diversify into other currencies, but again there are problems. The main one is that most of China's trade is denominated in US dollars. Any moves into other currencies will have major market impact and would ruin the PBoC's efforts to contain the rise in the yuan. Also, remember the fuss when a Chinese firm (CNOOC) tried to buy a middle-tier American oil firm (Unocal)? Imagine the response if it was China's official investment agency doing the buying.

So while this all sounds good and exciting, especially for investment bankers, I suspect the reality is going to be rather different to the expectations.

There's no pleasing some people. Henry Tang finally halves the city's high grog taxes only for the worry-warts to start fretting that kids may (brace yourself) drink themselves stupid, according to the SCMP:

Binge drinking among university students could become even more of a problem because of the cut in tax on alcohol, an academic has warned...Students mainly drink beer, with increased preference for wine and spirits in their second year at university. They drink for celebration, to relieve stress and to enjoy themselves.

Drink up, youth of Hong Kong.

Some of the grandees from Hong Kong who are busy in Beijing meaningless NPC and CPPCC sessions are pissed off. Why? Because they've been dissed, according to the SCMP:

Murmurings of discontent among National People's Congress deputies and delegates to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from Hong Kong have intensified over Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's failure to host a traditional reception for them in Beijing...Mr Tsang decided not to attend the NPC because he is busy running for re-election.

Another CPPCC member said: "It was actually quite outrageous that [Chief Secretary] Rafael Hui [Si-yan] went to Sichuan to see the pandas while he could have been Donald Tsang's stand-in as the reception host."

While on the NPC, one delegate had some advice for PLA members:

Internet users should keep national security in mind and not reveal military secrets through online chat rooms, e-mails or blogs, said Lin Kang , an NPC delegate from the second artillery corps. He said many Web portals had set up special military columns and some experts had blogs.

To blog or not to blog? That is the question for Carl Bildt, Sweden's foreign minister who is under fire for posting too much information online in a forum his critics say is incompatible with the office he holds.

For several weeks now Mr Bildt, 57, has been writing his new Swedish-language blog, sometimes posting several messages a day and offering a running commentary on how he spends his days and sharing his thoughts on a wide range of issues...Mr Bildt's musings remain hugely popular among the Swedish public.

The Economist looks at what China's new private property law means and the underlying ideological struggle at the heart of China's economic reforms.

While the US Secret Service spends its time fighting counterfiet notes, Justin Mitchell and Catherine Jiang easily find Noth Korean Supernotes, buy one and find out who's better at telling fake from real: man or machine?

A good read.

The enjoyable thing about reading Hong Kong's newspapers is that often the articles are so absurd they beat anything the world of fiction can produce. Sometimes it's the writing or the editing, but often it's the content that brings a smile to the face. Today has two examples.

Firstly it appears that clapping has been banned during next week's Chief Executive forum. It seems some people were put off by applause during the brief debate.

Apparently the applause by more than 100 pan-democrat Election Committee members during the first-ever televised forum March 1 upset some people, resulting in organizers bringing in the ban. Organizers said this was in line with some televised debates during the US presidential election.

However, veteran democrat politician Martin Lee Chu-ming scoffed at the ban at the March 15 forum, describing it as ridiculous..."Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's election office was quoted as saying it was referring to a similar arrangement in the US presidential election.

"If this is the case, then why doesn't the office also insist on the US system of one-person, one-vote?"

The second thing is even better: it appears that because the government's coffers are overflowing and they've handed out some tax cuts to the mythical "middle class", the powers-that-be have found a measly HK$300 million to throw at Hong Kong's film industry. In another blow to positive non-interventionism, it seems The Don's goverment has decided to help out entertainment moguls because they're having a hard time making as many movies as they used to. Now the government is falling for the trap of picking "champions", starting with the film industry.

Which naturally leads to only one question: will the film industry be getting a functional constituency in the new Legco election in a complete reversal of the "no taxation without representation" concept. But will they be banned from clapping the results?

James Mann used to be the LA Times Beijing correspondent and has written a book, The China Fantasy. Here's a review of the book via Bloomberg:

This tale crops up in a new book by James Mann, a former Beijing correspondent of the Los Angeles Times who uses it to illustrate the way skewed information warps the views foreigners have of China. The difference, these days, is that the Chinese aren't the only ones doing the skewing, he writes.

In ``The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression,'' Mann points an accusing finger at the most powerful people in U.S., Europe and Asia -- politicians, corporate executives, scholars and diplomats.

These decision makers and opinion formers offer what he terms the Soothing Scenario whenever critics attack China's one- party regime and grim human-rights record: No one should worry, they argue, because increasing trade and investment will do more than speed China's economic transformation; it will also bring dramatic political change.

That, Mann contends, isn't true. ``Day after day, American officials carry out policies based upon premises about China's future that are at best questionable and at worst downright false,'' he says in these crisply written and pugnacious essays...

Still, this book could do with more balance. For instance, Mann omits to mention how authoritarian China has pulled off the unprecedented trick of lifting 300-plus million people out of poverty since 1980, according to United Nations figures. Nor does he offer much advice to China investors. That may not be the purpose of this book, yet it's something readers of Beijing Jeep will want.

Admist more drivel from Hong Kong's (hardly) Liberal Party on why they should get more of everything even though they haven't done anything to deserve it, comes an insight into what it takes to make it to the top in politics:

Commenting on remarks by businessman Tsang Hin-chi - a member of the NPC Standing Committee - that he intends to serve for life on the committee, Tien said if Tsang stuck to his pledge, then his widely-tipped successor, Legislative Council president Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, might have to run in next year's Hong Kong legislative elections to maintain her seat in the council.

Tien said Fan had already expressed her wish to retire next year, and reckoned she is not keen to climb the national power ladder as she has no business investments in the mainland nor does she enjoy cocktail receptions.

China's parliament is meeting in Beijing. It is a largely toothless institution and all the major decisions have already been made. So to make an impact the politicians that attend have to stake out fringe issues and make them seem important in order for people to notice them. As a prime example, take Hong Kong's DAB delegation, who's issue is an effort to make China's banknotes cleaner. While the senior Beijing leadership grapple with North Korea, social instability, a widening income gap, the environment and more, the DAB delegates have firmly marked the hygeine standards of the nation's currency as their banner issue.

Wouldn't it be better to suggest the current notes be properly cleaned? I've even got the term for it: money laundering.

Shaky points out new security regulations at Hong Kong airport. All liquids and gels greater than 100mL are banned, which begs the question: is the conveniently round 100mL the exact threshold for dangerous liquid explosives? Is 99mL of anything below the critical mass required while 101mL is a threat to flight?

There are a few reasons this decision has been reached. Firstly it must have become too costly for the airport to keep screening America-bound passengers seperately. The authorities have so enjoyed telling passengers why they can't take 5 tubes of toothpaste or their 1 litre water bottles in their carry-on luggage that their colleagues screening passengers to less exotic destinations have become jealous. Now we can all look forward to laboriously long queues at passenger screening while passengers who can't read signs argue with officers who don't give a shit. Secondly with this ban Watsons outlets at the airport will see a bounce in sales because the liquids and gels they sell are "safe", although one wonders what security screening they go through with their deliveries. Can it be a co-incidence that HK Airport gets a percentage cut of airport store sales? Finally can it be long before we magically see "HK Airport endorsed" toiletry kits for sale (at Watsons of course) with 100mL shaving cream, deodorant and toothpaste all at the same price as full size cans?

Just like Hong Kong's election, the point of all this is not that it actually does any good, but rather that it's seen to be doing something. Hands up if you feel safer now?

Last night saw the first ever debate between Donald "Shifty Nifty" Tsang and Alan "Don Quioxite" Leong, with Leong being the clear winner and still having no hope of changing anyone's mind. Buried in The Standard's summary of the debate is a perfect symbol of everything that's wrong with the system:

The heated debate took place in front of a live audience of 530 Election Committee members and millions of viewers and listeners on television and radio...A total of 22 questions were raised by committee members, while six were selected at random from questions submitted by the public in advance.

This is considered progress.

Henry Tang's budget has received plenty of good press today. Amongst other gems, the SCMP reports:

Profit-making companies and the highest income-earners who pay the standard tax rate will not benefit from any tax reduction under the principle of "pay as you can afford", Mr Tang said. But the number who pay the top rate is expected to shrink from 35,000 to 5,000 after a revamp of marginal tax bands and rates, taking them back to 2002-03 levels.

He conceded that the now-defunct goods and services tax had upset the people, but was adamant that the narrow tax base was an issue that needed to be addressed.

"The GST is not at the bottom of Victoria Harbour," he said adding that the next government would be given a report after the current consultation closes this month.

So our next chief secretary basks in the glory of "turning around the deficit clouding the government's treasury since he became finance chief in August 2003, when the fiscal deficit was mired in a deficit of about HK$60 billion." He's managed to do this by, ummm, riding a property and economic boom and staying out of things. Tough job but someone's gotta do it.

Yet amongst all the hype, there are some glaring gaps. The budget does very little for the "working class" - those that don't pay any income tax at all (why is there so much talk about class in a supposedly non-Communist economy)? And what about the army of domestic helpers that were forced to take a cut in their minimum wage to help "share the burden" when times were tough a couple of years ago, on top of which they were effectively taxed on their income whereas Hong Kong residents earning the same amount aren't? Can we expect helpers to see a rise in their minimum wage and abolition of the duty on their wages?

Finally, in the middle of today's SCMP there's an advertisement in green, which takes half the page. It's full of hand-written scrawl and arrows to vacuous questions. This is what passes for political advertising in this city. Why does The Don bother and surely with the oodles of money he's raised he could at least find someone who can write more neatly than himself? The Don's website doesn't have the ad that appeared today in the People's South China Morning Post - they'll get the hang of this internet thingy-majiggy soon. The Don should ask Henry Tang for a government hand-out to help with "developing internet infrastructure".