CHINA: China sent Buddha's finger to Hong Kong this week to celebrate the divinity's birthday as a gesture of reconciliation with the former British colony, where leading democrats and academics fear freedom of speech is in jeopardy.
There has been growing tension between Beijing and Hong Kong in recent weeks, heightened by the resignation of three leading radio talk-show hosts who were critical of China and the Hong Kong government.
In an effort to ease relations, Ms Liu Yandong, vice-chairwoman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body composed of non-Communists, arrived in Hong Kong this week to meet senior public figures and escort the precious Buddhist relic to the territory.
Ms Liu attended a ceremony to venerate the Buddha's sarira, or finger-bone relic, and appealed to Hong Kong people's patriotism, saying that loving the motherland meant loving Hong Kong. She used an old Chinese saying: "If the family lives in harmony, all affairs will prosper".
Ms Liu insisted that Beijing's idea of "one country, two systems", touted as a guarantor of Hong Kong's freedoms when it took over in 1997, was central to Beijing's thinking on how it deals with the island.
The theory, which should afford Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, has appeared increasingly shaky in recent weeks as a result of the talk-show hosts' allegations, which the central government in Beijing have denied.
Yet if politics divides the two systems, religion may unite them. Buddha's finger is a potent symbol in the largely Buddhist country and is viewed by many devout followers as one of their faith's most sacred relics.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kong people filed past the relic this week as saffron-robed monks chanted prayers.
The finger was brought from Famen Temple near the ancient capital of Xi'an in central China. It was among several relics of Buddha, who died about 483 BC, which were discovered in the temple in 1987.
A leading pro-democracy lawmaker, Mr Lee Cheuk-yan, complained that bringing the relic to Hong Kong was a propaganda exercise.
Beijing caused widespread concern in Hong Kong last month when it ruled out universal suffrage for elections due in 2007 and 2008.