The business of Hong Kong is business: that is the story the territory’s government would like the rest of the world to believe and it is reinforced by the former British colony’s new masters in Beijing, who insist that Hong Kong is “an economic city” not a “political city”. Why then is politics taking centre stage in Hong Kong’s biggest business deals?

This question must be troubling the directors of PCCW, Hong Kong’s largest telecommunications company. Their concerns would evoke wider sympathy had politics not played a part in PCCW’s birth, but we will come back to that later. As matters stand the directors are trying to sell the bulk of their assets (but not the whole company) to two groups of bidders. The first is led by the Australian investment bank, Macquarie, and the second by US-based TPG-Newbridge, a private equity firm. But politics is getting in the way of this transaction.