But speaking of foreign connections, Mr Chan, could you at the same time enlighten us on the spectacular collapse of Enron Corp in the United States? You were a main board director, you sat on the audit and finance committees and they speak of skulduggery at Enron.

Do you not think that you should find opportunity to clear your name in public of any association with this? Keep it to a few brief paragraphs at most and you may have the same space I offer to Mr Lee. Let us clear up foreign matters on both sides here.

In addition, Sir, I find it odd that in your letter you should say: 'Even if some local businessmen are currying favour from Beijing, benefits received are private to those individuals and are economic in nature.'

Well, yes, that was my point in the first place in asking whether your pro-Beijing views on constitutional affairs in Hong Kong had anything to do with your wishing to stay on good terms with Beijing, given the valuable assets your company holds in the mainland.

But you also say that what these unnamed local businessmen may do is no one's business. Are you sure? I believe we have an Independent Commission Against Corruption here and it has definite views on the sort of individual private economic arrangements to which you refer.

'In order to support the bond issue by the Hong Kong government, the central government will buy Hong Kong bonds [and] we have decided on the amount already.'

Premier Wen Jiabao

EXCUSE ME, Mr Wen, could you please clarify whether you were referring to the amount for which you will apply or, as you seem to have put it, the amount you will actually buy.

The difficulty, you see, is that if you have already reached a firm agreement with the Hong Kong government for the amount you will buy before any others have been given the opportunity to strike such an agreement, we would have a case of what is called 'preferential allocation' and there are rules against it here.

More than that, while I can understand your willingness to buy these bonds as a gesture of beneficence to Hong Kong at a time of troubled relations with Beijing, are you of the view that the success of this issue will require your support?

If so, I think you have it wrong. These bonds are being offered in a free market and the success of the issue will depend solely on the coupon that the Hong Kong government pays on them.

I grant you that it might also have depended on the market's opinion of our government's creditworthiness if there were any reason to doubt this creditworthiness, and in that case your support would have been meaningful. But you may rest easy. There is no worry on that score at all here.

Let us put things in perspective, Sir. The net external claims of the Hong Kong financial system, net of liabilities, has risen to almost $1.4 trillion, which is more than our annual gross domestic product.

It may also interest you to know that our current account surplus is running at the equivalent of more than 12 per cent of GDP and our banks are so flush with cash they hardly know what to do with the money.

Nor will this $20 billion bond issue mean much in the scheme of things. The outstanding total value of Hong Kong dollar debt instruments at the moment is $560 billion and the yield is competitive. You still get less than 5 per cent on 10-year Exchange Fund bonds.

Before offering coals to Newcastle, Mr Wen, dare to think that at some point the question of who supports whom may have to be phrased the other way round.

You have yourself admitted that what masquerades as a financial system in the mainland faces serious problems at the moment. Are you sure that you will never be tempted to come to us with a begging bowl?