THE END OF HONGKONG By Robert Cottrell (John Murray, $150) SO, how did we get into this mess? Did Hongkong really have to return to Chinese rule? How was the deal done? Robert Cottrell untangles the complicated web surrounding the negotiations which led to China's resumption of sovereignty over Hongkong with suchskill that this work sometimes reads with the ease of a thriller.
Unlike a thriller, which builds to an uncertain climax, the result of the secret diplomacy which led to Hongkong's transfer of power is very clearly known. The Union Jack will come down at the stroke of midnight on June 30, 1997 and the red flag, emblazoned with its five stars, will rise.
Was it always going to be so? Mr Cottrell, based in Hongkong from 1982 to 1988 as correspondent for Britain's Financial Times and The Independent , suggests that it was. However, like many others who have studied this subject, he has been unable to get sufficiently close to Chinese sources to provide a definitive answer.
Nevertheless, he pinpoints the period around Christmas, 1981, as the time when ''the decision in principle to proceed with the resumption of Hongkong was probably taken''.
My own view is that the die was cast during the historic visit to Beijing in March 1979 of the then Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose. As usual the people of Hongkong were kept in the dark about what transpired during Sir Murray's meeting with China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and were actively misled about its outcome. The Governor tried to get the great man to agree on a proposal to allow land leases in the New Territories to be renewed after 1997, while leaving aside the question of sovereignty over the colony as a whole. The old warrior, not known for his subtlety, totally missed the point of Sir Murray's remarks, suspected another devious British ploy and responded by launching into a sterling defence of China's sovereign rights and determination toassert them by bringing the colony back to the motherland.
Here, Mr Cottrell explains the Brits, who genuinely thought it would be possible to do some sort of deal under which Britain would cede sovereignty but retain its administration over Hongkong, had forced China's hand. Whether Beijing was going to take back the colony in any case, remains an open question.