Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators marching through the streets of Hong Kong as President Hu Jintao visits the former British colony to mark 15 years since its return to Chinese rule. June 1, 2012 (Photo/BBC)

DHARAMSHALA, June 1: Tens of thousands of pro-democracy marchers filled the streets of Hong Kong Sunday, as the former British colony marked 15 years since the return to Chinese rule.

The protests rallied around the swearing-in ceremony of Leung Chun-ying, a millionaire property consultant considered close to China's communist rulers, as the chief executive from Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The approach of Tropical Storm Talim last week had a political effect, which was that a provisional session of the legislature could not be held and was instead postponed until July 20. An interesting question to ask is who lost out from Talim, and who gained from it?

Some people say that Talim helped President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) out of a tight spot. Their reasoning is that if the provisional session had gone ahead at a time when lawmakers belonging to Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were unwilling to fight for him, then the only motion tabled for the session — a proposed amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) that would primarily affect imports of US beef — would not have passed. If that had happened, Ma’s authority would have once again been badly dented. Now that the meeting can no longer be held, Ma can avoid further humiliation and so, according to this theory, the storm helped him out in a big way.