The Hong Kong Diaries

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wonderfully waspish, fascinating and rude in spades about all the people who deserve nothing less. Stephen Vines, Literary Review There is other evidence in The Diaries illustrating how ‘bargaining below the table’ is often conducted. The Diaries (p.68) reports that Lu sent a private message to Patten, informing Patten that if he respected Lu’s ‘face’ and behaved properly, then Patten would be invited to Beijing, implying that if Patten gave way in the negotiation, Lu could arrange Patten to shake hand with higher ranking senior members of the Chinese Communist Party (CPP). What a bunch we have to deal with,” he writes in May 1995 when Chinese officials refused to meet him during their visit to the city. But the governor’s frustration with much of the business elite, anxious only to kowtow to Beijing and go on making a lot of money, was almost as great. Strained relations extended even to his more natural political allies, the Hong Kong democrats led by Martin Lee. Though on the eve of handover, Patten admits glumly: “They are good and brave people. We have let them and others down.” Patten’s most withering comments are reserved for Sinophile diplomats in London, many of whom viewed he with disdain In the initial years after his tenure as Governor of Hong Kong ended Patten, by his own admission, chose not to directly comment on Hong Kong's affairs but in recent years has increasingly shared his views on Hong Kong in public talks and press interviews since the handover. [37]

British media: 20 years after the Hong Kong handover, what does Chris Patten regret?]. BBC News (in Chinese). 28 June 2017 . Retrieved 16 July 2019. At midnight Hong Kong Time 1 July 1997 (16:00 GMT, 30 June 1997), he sent the telegram: "I have relinquished the administration of this government. God Save The Queen. Patten." [22] This marked the end of British rule in Hong Kong. After the handover ceremony he left the city, together with Prince Charles, on board the British royal yacht, HMY Britannia. Patten was noted to be in tears throughout the day, notably after his speech at Tamar. [23] He has since commented that his governorship of Hong Kong was a happy time for him personally as he shared this experience with his wife and children. [24] Patten government [ edit ] Portfolio In November 2016 Patten was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour, and was presented with the award by the French Ambassador to the United Kingdom Sylvie Bermann at Kensington Palace Gardens. [60] Lord Patten of Barnes, Parliamentary career". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Sumption, Jonathan (4 October 2008). "The pragmatic approach". The Spectator. 308 (9397): 38. Archived from the original on 12 January 2009 . Retrieved 23 December 2008.

I grew up in Hong Kong and for some reason have always remembered the name of the last Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, even though I was not really interested in politics at the time. I remember driving by the Governor's house which was not far from where I lived. Like South Koreans, Chinese regard consuming dog meat as normal. However, in British Hong Kong, the Dogs and Cats Ordinance of 1950 prohibits the slaughter of dogs for use as food. The loss of Soda signifies Sino-British cultural differences in dog domestication. On the disappearance of Soda, Gareth Evans, former Australia’s Foreign Minister, made a joke during a banquet dinner that Chinese ate Soda. One newspapers headline reports, ‘Chinese eat governor’s dog’. Evans later was required to clarify his remarks upon China’s inquiry! (p.80) A few minutes after the result of Monday’s confidence vote in the prime minister was announced, I spoke to Chris Patten on the phone. The former Conservative party chairman and current rebellious Tory peer was dismayed to see the “Johnson cult still hanging on”. He described the government as “shameful and seedy”. “The most depressing thing is I’ve been watching interviews with ministers this evening,” he said, “and the titles alone are so depressing. Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for Brexit opportunities. If ever there as a contradiction in terms it is that. And nobody should ever see the words ‘Nadine Dorries’ and ‘culture secretary’ in the same sentence.” Lord Patten becomes Commandeur in Ordre de la Légion d'honneur". Embassy of France, London. 3 November 2016. Archived from the original on 19 August 2018 . Retrieved 23 December 2016. In 2014 Pope Francis appointed Patten to head a body to advise the Vatican on media strategy and on how to handle the press, which he remained on until 2016. [ citation needed] In the media [ edit ]

Patten was the biggest proponent in the commission for Turkey's accession to the European Union. [27] As for the triviality of diary entries, it too has a point. In the beginning, Patten was observing and groping for his elbow room, which he would come to understand was proportional to how tight Beijing's grip was. Mired in the machinated disarray created by the provisional legislature, he complained more and joked less. The transformation and wearing out of a new governor can be read between the lines. Grice, Elizabeth (19 July 2012). "Lord Patten: 'It's not the BBC's job to be jokey' ". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Cheung, Tony (25 November 2016). "Chris Patten warns Hong Kong pro-independence antics 'dilute support' for democracy". South China Morning Post. Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, KG , CH , PC ( Chinese: 彭定康; [2] born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life peer in 2005 and has been Chancellor of the University of Oxford since 2003. He is one of the two living former governors of Hong Kong. The other is David Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn.In May 2020, Patten said that there was a case for a multilateral mission to travel to Wuhan to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak. He argued the Chinese government had breached its obligations as a member of the World Health Organization and the 2005 International Health Regulations treaty. He also added that Britain and other countries were not against the Chinese nation or people, praising China's medical workers who first responded to the virus, but stated "It is our relationship with the dangerous and immoral Communist Party. In Wuhan the Communist party used the police to try and shut the doctors up. Totalitarian regimes always rely on secrecy and mendacity." [36] On Hong Kong [ edit ]

I am largely a fan of Patten (although I've always been bemused how such an intelligent, logical and caring man can believe in god, and be a practicing member of the Catholic church...). His Hong Kong diaries nudged me slightly in a negative direction, although there is much about hime that I continue to admire.In 2003 he was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Bath. In September 2005 he was elected a Distinguished Honorary Fellow of Massey College in the University of Toronto (the only person so elected except for the Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) as well as receiving an honorary D.S.Litt. degree from the University of Trinity College, Toronto and an honorary D.Litt. degree from the University of Ulster. [59] In March 2009, Patten received the title Doctor honoris causa by South East European University. It’s been a very long nervous breakdown. And I don’t see what pulls the party together again. In politics, one has to make a distinction between people who are doing things that are wrong and people who are trying to do things that are right. And I just think Johnson is terribly wrong. It is hard to beat Dominic Grieve’s description of him as a moral vacuum.”