Hong Kong's 'iron lady' Anson Chan bows out

By Peter Lim

HONG KONG (AFP): Chief Secretary Anson Chan was the first Chinese and the first woman to work her way to the top of Hong Kong's civil service, keeping her post even after the territory's handover from Britain to Beijing.

Her legacy to Hong Kong during a career which spanned 38 years is already formidable, but it may be that she will prefer to be seen as the "iron lady" who stood true to her conscience.

Chan, who was seen as being close to the last British governor, Chris Patten, warned back in 1999, two years after the handover, that she would quit if her relationship with the government of Patten's successor, Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, turned sour.

Last Friday, after decades working first for British rule and then under the administration of the Communist leaders in Beijing, Chan finally ended years of speculation and quit.

Although publicly she told a press conference she was retiring for personal reasons and because she wanted to "spend more time with my family," the decision came just three months after a public rebuke from Beijing.

After talks in Beijing, Vice Premier Qian Qichen said in public remarks Chan could do more to support Tung -- handpicked by Beijing to run the territory after the 1997 handover.

It was an open, humiliating rebuke in a culture where loss of face is one of the worst things that can happen to an individual.

Shanghai-born Chan was appointed to her position in 1993 by Patten, and continued as head of Hong Kong's 190,000-strong civil service after the handover in order to facilitate a smooth transition.

She was seen as a symbol for maintaining confidence in Hong Kong, amid international fears that the return to Chinese rule would spell an end to the territory's nascent democracy.

But Chan's term under Tung, a former shipping tycoon, was dotted with persistent speculation that she would eventually be forced out because she was seen in Beijing as pro-British. There were also reports the two had clashed, which both tried to play down.

The tensions came to a head in September with her public dressing down.

The rebuke was seen in Hong Kong as a signal that Beijing wanted Tung to serve a second five-year term and would not countenance his replacement by a less compliant figure.

Up until that point, Chan had appeared to harbor hopes of securing the top job herself, repeatedly and pointedly refusing to rule out running. Last Friday, she told the press conference she would not put herself up for the job.

Chan, who will be 61 on Wednesday, resigned after Tung reportedly failed to persuade her to stay until June 2002, when his own term expires.

She will reportedly be replaced by Donald Tsang, the territory's finance secretary, although Tung said he would make an official announcement later.

Recent reports have said Chan may be offered the chair of the joint venture which is setting up a Disneyland them park in Hong Kong or the vice-chancellorship of the University of Hong Kong.

Chan's resignation is likely to be seen internationally as a further indication that Hong Kong's autonomy from Beijing -- enshrined in the "one country, two systems" model under which it was handed back -- is being eroded.

Chan, who was born in Shanghai in 1940, comes from a big and wealthy family of former refugees from communist China. She has six brothers and her twin sister, Ming-son. Her elderly mother is a famous artist whose works are given out by Chan as special gifts.

Although the family left China after the communists came to power in 1949, Chan's grandfather, Gen. Fang Zhenwu, is regarded as a war hero who "took the patriotic path" by siding with Mao Zedong's communist forces against the nationalists of Chiang Kai- shek and the Japanese.