Chris Patten is in Yorkshire next week for ilkleylitfest to discuss his new book The Hong Kong Diaries:
Advertisement“But I recognised that it was going to be rather an important moment, both in British history and in diplomacy with a growing power, China, so I started writing really slightly before I went to Hong Kong.
“When I started reading them, I thought I really should edit this myself,” he says. “So I turned about 900,000 words into about 250,000. That's the diary. I added at the beginning a chapter about what had happened before and what happened afterwards.
Hong Kong became a British colony in the 19th Century and was gradually built up from an area of farming and fishing villages to one of the world’s most important commercial ports and financial centres.In 1984, China and the UK signed a joint declaration in which it was agreed the colony would be transferred in 1997 with China guaranteeing Hong Kong’s political and economic systems for 50 years after that.
Xi, who looks set to secure a precedent-breaking third term, is regarded by Patten as no less than a “dictator”.In 2020, China introduced a wide-ranging ‘national security law’ for Hong Kong, making it easier to prosecute protesters and reducing its political autonomy.
“He's also been closing China down from other countries which is bad for a country which has been so interconnected with the global economy previously. I think he's getting worse. And you can't expect the situation in Hong Kong while he's there to get any better, which is a tragedy. The Communists in Beijing have gone about demolishing Hong Kong's freedoms and the rule of law in a venomous and comprehensive way.
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