THE political events of the past few days have been depressing. But at least if we had any doubts before, Hong Kong now knows where it stands.
The promise of ''one country, two systems'' has proved meaningless. So, too, has the promise of ''Hong Kong people rule Hong Kong''.
Instead, China threatens to impose its own system - its ''new kitchen'' - on Hong Kong after 1997. What does this mean? It means, presumably, that the people whom Hong Kong has chosen to run its affairs will be thrown out of office so that China can promote its own people who will be answerable to Beijing rather than Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's main feeling is now one of disappointment, indeed disgust, at Beijing's refusal to countenance any sort of movement towards a fairer and more transparent electoral system which might endure beyond 1997. But we can scarcely be less harsh in our verdict on London's willingness to waste so much of Hong Kong's precious time on negotiations which were obviously doomed from the outset to go nowhere.
The account of the Sino-British negotiations released by the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office confirms the fears of those who, from the outset, saw the negotiations as a diplomatic pantomime played out without real concern for the welfare of Hong Kong.
The 17 rounds of ''talks'', we are now officially told, consisted only of sterile posturing. The Patten Proposals were reduced to the derisory elements which will soon, it appears, be tabled before the Legislative Council.
