Democracy in Hong Kong - sometime, never?

Tsang does not perform well in the full glare of publicity - his attempt at a public debate on electoral issues with Audrey Eu, of the pro-democracy Civic Party, was a disaster that even he admits - however, behind-the-scenes wooing of the larger Democratic Party to the effect that his reforms are better than no reforms at all, has been successful.

At the same time persistent propaganda seems to have convinced most of the population that the government's steady-as-she goes policies are the best way of approaching democracy while retaining the prosperity and freedoms Hong Kongers already enjoy. Any other course, the government lines goes, would plunge the Special Administrative Region down an unknown and dangerous path leading to confrontation with Beijing.

The implication is that pro-democracy parties are composed of wild-eyed extremists who would provoke the People's Republic into sending in the tanks. Such a scenario is highly unlikely, but still sends cold shivers down the spines of the large business community desperately anxious to preserve Hong Kong's privileged status as an international city and a bridge between east and west.

It also plays well with the superiority many Hong Kongers feel - though rarely articulate - when they compare themselves with their cousins on the mainland. There is a belief that while the People's Republic may have brute force on its side, it can be kept at bay by careful, nuanced negotiation and that in the long term Hong Kong will get its way. It is an illusion that Beijing may feel there is no harm in propagating, at least for now.

There are possible future crisis points in relations between the two - internal upheavals may radically alter China's attitude to Hong Kong, or an increasingly powerful, confident People's Republic could see no need to continue with Hong Kong's semi-autonomy. Either of these scenarios would be a significant threat to the stability of the Asia Pacific region - Hong Kong today Taiwan tomorrow - and a challenge to the international community.

But for moment at least the path outlined by Donald Tsang appears the most likely - "I don't think either of us must change to make good the relationship," he said in a recent interview.

"This beautiful marriage of one-country-two-systems is based on being different."