Chris Patten admits Britain did poor job in introducing democracy to Hong Kong

Former governor Chris Patten told a parliamentary inquiry into Hong Kong's political development yesterday that the British government had not done a good enough job in introducing democracy to the city before the handover.

But he argued that in the 1990s, the general feeling in Hong Kong was that the city would move steadily towards full democracy and that no one would "feel that the People's Liberation Army would come with tanks into Hong Kong".

Patten was giving evidence at a session of the Foreign Affairs Committee, which launched the inquiry to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Sino-British Joint Declaration that set out the terms of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty.

"Our introduction of democracy, if I could put it politely, is not a good one," Patten said. But he was satisfied that the Joint Declaration was the best deal that London could have made with China.

On Occupy Central, Patten said he hoped the Hong Kong government could be more flexible and try to reach a deal with the protesters. "What is happening in Hong Kong is that there is an extraordinary lack of leadership. [The government] needs to get into serious negotiation with the protesters."

Yesterday's session followed one in July, when former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang and veteran Democrat Martin Lee Chu-ming were invited to testify during their visit to London. At that time, the pair said that if Hong Kong was not granted universal suffrage there would be a real danger it could become ungovernable, which would be a shameful outcome for both Britain and China.