It's all in the dates. Outlining a vision of Hong Kong as one of the great world cities of the future, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa identified some milestone years. The measures, delivered in a policy speech Oct. 6, were praised for their farsightedness. In fact, they look so far into the future they go beyond the end, in 2002, of Tung's term as chief executive.
Many people think so.
In 1997, when he delivered his first policy speech in the wake of the departure a couple of months earlier of the British administration, he unveiled a program that promised more housing, better education and improved welfare. A year later, Hong Kong had been swamped by the Asian economic crisis and some of the initial goals had been washed overboard. The emphasis was on survival and maintaining self-confidence. Now, with the worst of the storm passed, Tung is seen as being back on track - with the added responsibility of cleaning up the environment. Questioned in the past about whether he was interested in a second term, Tung has always been evasive - too busy to think about it, too far into the future, too speculative.