...and the rumble continues...

Today's newspapers were flooded with letters of restaurant and bar bosses who voiced their anger over the decision to scrap the visit of 8.000 American sailors. Beijing granted "humanitarian" grounds but it came too late for the sailors and about 290 family members who had flown into the City for Thanksgiving. It is still not clear why the fleet was denied entry, but an unanounced PLA flight training exercise was held this week over costal areas over the East and South China seas and on wednesday a PLA guided missile destroyer sailed from Guangdong on a historic port visit to Japan.

By the way - poor Michael had to spend 4 solid hours waiting in an airplane on the departure runway in Wuxi on tuesday, also without any further explanation - probabely these events are related.

One restaurant owner is convinced from experience that he missed out on about HKD 2 million from the visit - it's a massive impact on the City, that's for sure and cab drivers and bar owners were equally ticked off. What's especially sad is, that it would have been the last visit to HK for the carrier, which will be decommissioned next year after 46 years of service.

HK-based military expert A.C. said Beijing's action reflected its anger over the planned US sale of missiles to Taiwan and President Bush's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama - Kindergarden!

(source: SCMP)