https://www.scmp.com/rss/301918/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Sunday 1 June, 1997 Not just the last lap, but the final straight. We gave a barbecue for present and past private office staff, bodyguards and families at Fanling [Lodge]. We will miss them all a lot. Monday 2 June Anson [Chan Fang On-sang] has given an interview to Newsweek and they put her on the cover. It’s full of spirited stuff about standing up for Hong Kong’s freedoms and the importance of acting according to your conscience. It looks like the drawing of a line in the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3185386/chris-pattens-hong-kong-diaries-1997-handover?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3185386/chris-pattens-hong-kong-diaries-1997-handover?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Jul 2022 03:15:23 +0000 Hong Kong's democracy movement has gained admiration worldwide. The principles, decency and behaviour of its youthful vanguard inspire confidence in the qualities of the generation that one day will run the great city. That said, it is time to move on to a sensible endgame. The longer the stand-off between Hong Kong's chief executive and the demonstrators continues, the more likely it is that individual citizens - and Hong Kong itself - will be hurt. The Hong Kong government should demonstrate... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1626592/hong-kong-government-can-make-new-case-beijing-electoral?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1626592/hong-kong-government-can-make-new-case-beijing-electoral?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Oct 2014 05:15:00 +0000 It is not wholly true to say that the eyes of the entire world are on Hong Kong. They would be, of course, if people in mainland China were allowed to know what is happening in their country's most successful city. But China's government has tried to block any news about the Hong Kong democracy demonstrations from reaching the rest of the country - not exactly a sign of confidence on the part of China's rulers in their system of authoritarian government. Before suggesting a way forward for Hong... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1608726/hong-kong-government-must-listen-its-people?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1608726/hong-kong-government-must-listen-its-people?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Oct 2014 02:30:45 +0000 In the end, democracy came to the rescue. The people of Scotland voted by a comfortable margin of about 10 per cent to remain part of the United Kingdom - not least because of the campaigning of three Labour politicians, Alastair Darling, Gordon Brown and Jim Murphy. At times, it seemed that the result would be much closer, or even that we British might engineer the dismemberment of our country, which for centuries has brought together four national communities: England, Wales, Northern Ireland... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1598030/now-uk-must-heal-itself?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1598030/now-uk-must-heal-itself?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Sep 2014 08:45:30 +0000 On July 1, 17 years ago, I was sailing on Britain's royal yacht away from Hong Kong where, at midnight the previous day, China assumed sovereignty under the terms of an international agreement with the United Kingdom (tabled at the United Nations) known as the Joint Declaration. That agreement guaranteed Hong Kong's way of life for 50 years under Deng Xiaoping's slogan "one country, two systems". The rule of law and the freedoms associated with pluralism - due process and the freedom of speech,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1554684/freedom-will-triumph-hong-kong-and-elsewhere?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1554684/freedom-will-triumph-hong-kong-and-elsewhere?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Jul 2014 05:45:15 +0000 It is difficult to separate some of my personal memories of Margaret Thatcher – mundane but revealing – from the sweeping judgments of history. I had worked for her as the Conservative Party’s research director, and as a minister for about 15 years, before going to Hong Kong as Britain’s last Governor there. Because she had negotiated Hong Kong’s handover to China, she was a frequent and welcome visitor during my tenure.  Thatcher was always hugely supportive of the preservation of Hong Kong’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1213709/human-thatcher?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1213709/human-thatcher?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Apr 2013 03:06:41 +0000