Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has kept his head down since his remarks on the June 4 crackdown caused a storm of criticism. Asked by reporters on Friday about his response to the June 4 candle-light vigil, Mr Tsang grinned but said nothing.
The government's terse response to the vigil was already clear from the words of Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung, when he was asked to comment shortly after it ended on Thursday night. Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen repeated them the following day: Hong Kong was a pluralistic society and the government respected freedom of speech and assembly. Asked why the government had refused dissidents entry to the city, Mr Tang said he would not comment on individual cases.
With no sign anyone is ready to forgive and forget - despite Mr Tsang's swift apology for his remarks last month - the chief executive and his team are keen not to add fuel to the fire.
Mr Tsang was roundly criticised for saying, when asked in the Legislative Council about the verdict on the protests 20 years ago in Tiananmen Square, that people needed to assess what happened in 1989 in the light of China's subsequent development, and claimed he was speaking for all Hongkongers. The pan-democrat lawmakers walked out of the Legco chamber in protest. Mr Tsang said soon afterwards that he was sorry if his remarks had caused any misunderstanding.
The remarks have proved far more damaging than he or his aides could have imagined. At Thursday's vigil in Victoria Park, the Civic Party was selling T-shirts emblazoned with the words 'Donald Tsang, you don't represent me'. The slogan was one of many the crowd chanted during the annual commemoration of those killed by PLA troops in Beijing on June 4, 1989.
Chinese dissidents including Wang Dan , an exiled former leader of the student protesters, and Ding Zilin of the Tiananmen Mothers movement, have condemned Mr Tsang for using China's phenomenal economic growth since 1989 as a justification for the bloody suppression.
