GATE TO CHINA

A British colony since the mid 19th century Opium Wars, Hong Kong was subject to a 100-year lease which resulted in its handover in 1997 under the final Governor Sir Christopher Patten. In the 1980s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher met Deng Xiaoping to try to secure the British tradition of democratic freedoms, and there was a considerable exodus of citizens in the ten years before handover. During the late 19th century Hong Kong had been a haven for reformers and dissidents fleeing the Qing dynasty. The city fell to the Japanese imperial army in 1941 but British rule was restored, and when China entered the cultural revolution of the 60s, Hong Kong's tradition of free speech made it an important western vantage point for Maoist China. In 1989 Hong Kongers rose in protest against China's Tiananmen Square crackdown. After the handover Beijing imposed a succession of leaders and finally in 2020 China shut down calls for democracy with a National Security Law. The author covered the handover negotiations as a journalist for the Sunday Times, and his description of Margaret Thatcher's meeting with Deng and his premier Zhao in 1982 are a fascinating record of power play. Thatcher argued that if China abrogated the 19th century treaties unilaterally, there would be a flight of capital from Hong Kong as a world financial centre. Zhao doggedly insisted it was a question of sovereignty. At the meeting with Deng, the discussion revolved round the meaning of "control", with Deng immovable that by 1997 China must have total control of the region, covertly threatening violence while Thatcher pointed to the undeniable wishes of the Hong Kong people. In the photos, Thatcher had her handbag and Deng his spittoon. The following years were murky, but the author gives credit to the British negotiators, particularly the ambassador Percy Cradock, for gaining some freedoms. 456pp, paperback, colour photos, list of characters.