MacLehose: I didn't give away HK

Former governor Lord MacLehose has denied forcing China's hand over Hong Kong's return to the mainland by raising the issue unexpectedly with Deng Xiaoping during a 1979 meeting.

There have long been claims that Lord MacLehose spurred China to take a hard line over the end of the New Territories lease by broaching the subject without warning, thus sealing Hong Kong's fate.

But in an interview with the South China Morning Post, he said: 'The amount that has been written about this is quite extraordinary.' Several authors have written that China believed the April 1979 visit to Beijing would be little more than a courtesy call until the then Sir Murray MacLehose brought up the subject of the lease.

Deng had not been briefed and refused to discuss anything which suggested a loss of Chinese sovereignty, it was said, fuelling popular wisdom that the then governor had given Hong Kong away.

But Lord MacLehose, governor from 1971 to 1982, said: 'I was going to raise it. But it wasn't me who mentioned the lease first, it was Deng Xiaoping.

'He said: 'Well, it is some time before 1997 and before then I am sure there will be discussions' or something like that. He did not say 'In 1997 we will have it back'.'.