ANSON CHAN’S DECISION to stand in a by-election for Hong Kong’s semi-democratic legislature is good news. Her admirers in Hong Kong have waited for a long time for this beloved but aloof figure to, as she put it “put my money where my mouth is.” Chan reached the top of Hong Kong’s civil service, earning the respect of the former British colonial government and the suspicion of the Chinese communists in the process. Too popular and independent to get along with the unpopular and incompetent Tung Chee-hwa, Beijing’s first handpicked chief executive, she was forced out of the number two position of chief secretary in 2001.
Since then she has performed a political fan dance. Would she or wouldn’t she contest the chief executive position? Of course, that “election” has an electorate of just 800–the members of a largely Beijing-appointed “Selection Committee.”
