Patten lacked long-term perspective, ex-diplomat writes

Hong Kong's last governor, Chris Patten, did not develop a long-term perspective on Sino-British relations, a former senior British diplomat says. That's because, as a politician his strategy was "getting through to lunch" rather than one getting through to June 1997, the city's final month of colonial rule, the diplomat writes in a memoir.

The closing days of British rule in Hong Kong were marked by constant bickering between Patten and Beijing, but the book, Ever the Diplomat, by Sherard Cowper-Coles, head of the Hong Kong department of Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1994 to 1997, also reveals Patten fell out with London.

"Governor, you really ought to have a strategy to take you through to June 1997," Cowper-Coles recalls saying in an early conversation with Patten.

Patten replied: "I'm a politician. My strategy is to get through to lunch."

Cowper-Coles found himself caught between Patten, who wanted to pioneer democracy in Hong Kong, and British diplomats fearful of angering China.

He said Patten dismissed those concerns as "Sinological claptrap" and relied instead on his own small team of advisers.