Since the discussion began in Hong Kong about political reform, there has been much talk about patriotism, patriots and the naming of specific individuals as non-patriots.

1. Love: Patriotism is the love of one's country. The dictionary defines a patriot as a person who defends his country's freedom or rights. Like love, "patriotism" is hard to define and can us used differently for different purposes. As the saying goes, one person's hero is another's revolutionary/traitor.

2. Reminder: On 10/2/04, Xinhua, the official Mainland news agency, published a statement on the best possible authority saying that "Hong Kong should be governed by Hong Kong people, with patriots as the main body".

"Some requirements or qualifications should be established with regard to the administration of Hong Kong affairs by Hong Kong people [post-1997]. It must be required that patriots form the main body of administrators ... Who are patriots? The qualifications for a patriot are (i) respect for the Chinese nation, (ii) sincere support for the motherland's resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong, and (iii) a desire not to impair Hong Kong's prosperity and stability".

5. Seriously?: Taken literally, it would appear that in assessing the fitness to govern post-1997 Hong Kong, other important qualities, other than patriotism, may have been overlooked.

1. According to Zhou: Zhou Nan was the pre-1997 head of the Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong Branch, the de facto Beijing representative in colonial Hong Kong. He gave a recent interview that was seen by commentators as reflecting "official" views. The following is a quick and fast summary of a part of the interview:

2. Foreign powers' strategy: London never saw fit to give democracy to Hong Kong except when it was to be used to foil Beijing. Pre-1997 attempts to promote democracy were aimed at creating obstacles to the transition and cultivate "agents" so that post-1997, these "agents" could manipulate local politics via LegCo and the administration. "Certain" external powers have never stopped trying to turn Hong Kong into an independent regime for subverting China "under the banner of democracy".

1. 30 Jan: Tsang Hin-chi, HK CPCCC member, accused the pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong of acting to damage the "one country" policy in the name of "returning power to the people" [a slogan used during the District Council elections and during marches].

2. 13 Feb: After seeing the Hong Kong Government's Task Force on Constitutional Development, Tsang Hin-chi said to the media that Martin Lee, Szeto Wah, and Cheung Man-kwong are "definitely unpatriotic" for their bag of sins (being key members of the Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China formed during the events of June 4, 1989), including objecting to the Article 23 national security legislation and/or organizing the 1 July 2003 rally. It was also confirmed on the same day that Margaret Ng, LegCo legal functional constituency member, was refused a visa to enter the Mainland.

1. Prayer from Donald Tsang - Chief Secretary and head of the task Force prayed: "Let us not tie ourselves in knots" over the semantics of patriotism and focus on maintaining stability and prosperity.

(b) Note that discussions on reform must preserve the "interests of different sectors" of the community and maintaining "capitalism" (coded messages for keeping the functional constituencies).

3. Beijing has not yet stated officially that it will not allow any change in 2007 or 2008 for the selection of the chief executive and the election of LegCo.