Lady Thatcher revealed yesterday she tried to get the New Territories lease extended for another 50 years during talks leading up to the Joint Declaration - but Deng Xiaoping warned he could move troops into Hong Kong immediately should Britain not agree to his terms.
The Chinese leader made the threat when the former prime minister tried to get the lease on the New Territories extended another 50 years.
Lady Thatcher said she told Deng Hong Kong people were prospering under British rule which also helped China.
She asked him: 'Couldn't we therefore, when the 99-years lease comes to an end, couldn't we have a new lease of say 50 years?' 'He reacted immediately,' Lady Thatcher said during a BBC interview with Sir David Frost. ' 'No', he said, 'I could send the troops in this afternoon if you didn't agree'.' Lady Thatcher said she told Deng: 'Yes, you could and there is nothing I could do to stop you because you have only to go over the border. But the world would know what China was like and how she dealt with the affair.' Lady Thatcher said the tragedy was that the Legislative Council, in which people had so much faith, stopped on the hour the lease ended. The best thing China could do to gain the confidence of Hong Kong people was to declare the Legco would be elected within a year.
Lady Thatcher repeated that she would not attend the swearing-in of the Provisional Legislature, saying: 'It would not be right after having got used to partial democracy to sit and watch the diminution of democracy.'