The Chief Executive (Governor? Mayor? For lack of a better word?) of Hong Kong has resigned, two years early.

For some background, the best anyone can ever say about Tung Chee Hwa is "He's not evil, he's just spineless and stupid." Last anyone checked, his popularity was in the low twenties. The man tipped to replace him (at least temporarily), Donald Tsang has a rep as a competent civil servant, but served the British for too long to be entirely trusted by Bejing. Seems like they've gotten over that for the time being, because for the past few days (before anything was announced), he's been walking around with a big stupid grin and humming the National Anthem.

The interesting thing in all of this is how it happened. We were told that Tung was to be "rewarded" with a plush retirement post up in Bejing, but his quitting wasn't meant to be publicly known. There's been a week of intense media speculation, which nobody in the Government would confirm. Nor deny.

My boss reckons Tung's been dragging out the negotiations, trying to milk his sacking for all it's worth. (All right, I'll leave, but only if you give me X, Y and Z.) Maybe he's not so spineless after all. So somebody up high in Beijing probably leaked info to the press to undercut his bargaining position and speed things along.

I suppose it's wishful thinking to expect anybody to ask, us, the public, about any of this. Or even tell us what's going on. What a bizarre foreign concept! But the poorly-managed secrecy has also made Tung's supporters look really stupid, because it's obvious that they've been left out of the loop as well.

Personally, I think the reason it took so long before anything was confirmed was just that the Politburo was dithering about it. They wanted him gone, but were scared that if they did, it might look like he was going because he was unpopular, which sets dangerous precedents about the people of Hong Kong actually having a say in who rules them. Somebody on the 'kick him out' side of the debate just forced their hand.

That may be it, but it's a bit weird that they chose to do it now. He hasn't done anything recently that made a lot of people angry. My guess is that they did it now because the committee that's supposed to replace him is scheduled to disband 3 days after the deadline for choosing a new guy. If they had to form a new committee, they'd have to have an awkward debate about constitutional reform.

It was rather amusing to watch the pro-Beijing politicians fall over themselves to describe to reporters how sickly Tung's been looking recently. He catches colds more often. He can't stand up for very long. He takes pain killers. Oh yup, definitely a touch of acid reflux there! Oh, that old knee's acting up! When a week and a half ago, Tung's health was a complete non-issue. Yes, he officially resigned for health reasons.

The metaphysical knife sticking out from between his shoulderblades might explain it.

Good one!
Mind if I make a political cartoon out of your idea?