HONG KONG - Hong Kong's future leader, Mr Tung Cheehwa, has cancelled a trip to the United States during which he had planned to calm fears over the British colony's handover.
Mr Tung's move seems to be motivated by pique that the man who will effectively face him as opposition leader, Mr Martin Lee, has been the focus of much media attention in the US. Lee is on a tour which he has issued gloomy warnings of a Chinese crackdown in Hong Kong.
Mr Tung's office denied that the postponement was linked to the visit by Mr Lee, leader of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, who is meeting President Clinton tomorrow.