Thatcher's role in Hong Kong handover draws tributes from across China
Beijing expresses deep condolences to Britain as former PM's influence in China remembered
Beijing was full of praise yesterday for Margaret Thatcher, especially for her contribution to Sino-British relations and for negotiating the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty.
"Margaret Thatcher was an outstanding stateswoman, who in her lifetime made important contributions to the development of Sino-British relations, in particular the peaceful solution to the Hong Kong issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. He expressed the Chinese people's "deep condolences" over the death on Monday of the former prime minister.
"Baroness Thatcher will be remembered as the British prime minister whose signature appears on the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed in Beijing in December 1984," Leung said.
"This agreement marked the beginning of Hong Kong's transition and return to China in 1997, when the principle of 'one country, two systems' in Hong Kong was successfully implemented."
People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, ran just a two-paragraph news story about Thatcher's death at the bottom of its inside international page yesterday.