The diaries of Lord Patten, the last British Governor of Hong Kong, will be published on June 21st and he will speak to the FCCC in the week before the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong about his experiences.
In June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong as the last British governor, to try to prepare it not – as other British colonies over the decades – for independence, but for handing back in 1997 to the Chinese, from whom most of its territory had been leased 99 years previously. Over the next five years he kept a diary, which gives unprecedented insights into negotiating with the Chinese, about how the institutions of democracy in Hong Kong were (belatedly) strengthened and how Patten sought to ensure that a strong degree of self-government would continue after 1997.
Chris Patten is Chancellor of Oxford University. When MP for Bath (1979-92) he served as Minister for Overseas Development, Secretary of State for the Environment and Chairman of the Conservative Party. He was Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 until 1997 and European Commissioner for External Relations from 1999 until 2004. The Observer has described him as ‘the best Tory Prime Minister we never had’.