Chris Patten recalls ‘happiest years’ as last governor of Hong Kong ... with egg tarts, insults and a pirated memoir
He says political career has made him thick-skinned, and strained ties with state leaders during his stint did not mean he was anti-Chinese
Barely minutes into the interview, Chris Patten mentions the label once pinned on him – “a sinner for a thousand years”. One feels compelled to ask: is it an old wound that still hurts?
He brushes aside the question but returns to it later when the conversation turns to how China perceived him.
Soon after arriving in Hong Kong in 1992 as its last colonial governor, he introduced electoral reforms to give more people a chance to vote in nine new functional constituencies. To China, this was Britain handing over the poisoned chalice of democracy just as it was returning the city to mainland rule.
Incensed, China’s top man on Hong Kong, Lu Ping, blasted him as a sinner for breaching the Sino-British agreements and ruining a smooth handover. More labels heaped on by yet others included “prostitute” and “tango dancer”, Patten recalls.
“I’d been in democratic politics for years so I had quite a thick skin when it came to criticism. So I didn’t really mind that. But it was absurd for people to use that kind of Cultural Revolution abuse.”
He insists his electoral reforms were “extremely limited”. “I wasn’t Tom Paine or Georges Danton,” he says, referring to towering western revolutionaries.
Nevertheless, thanks to the Chinese name-calling, the impression stuck that he was a “great fighter for democracy”. He quips that the infamy boosted sales of his first memoir East and West.
