there was a boycott by many people. turnout was just 30%. and by one analysis, 82 of the 90 seats were won by members pro establishment, pro beijing camp. given that you said 25 years ago, on leaving hong kong, britain has provided the scaffolding that enabled the people of hong kong to ascend the rule of law, clean and light handed government. the way you re talking now did you expect this? did you fear this? well, in my gloomiest moments, and i tend to the glass half empty school of looking at things, in my gloomiest moments, i thought that there was a possibility that it would all go wrong. i never thought that there would be a sort of tiananmen square in hong kong. i thought that that wouldn t happen, that there wouldn t be a tank man in hong kong. but i did always rather question the point that was made endlessly by my biggest critic, who was a former british ambassador in china called percy cradock, and he d been very close to margaret thatcher. it was very much driven by
shudderfrom you when i read was handed back and i could sense a shudder from you when i read that. yes, well it is of course completely absurd. i don t think xi jinping would know a democratic election if it hit him over the head with a police truncheon. the truth is, one of the reasons why the chinese communists passed what is called the national security law, which in effect put hong kong into handcuffs, one of the reasons they did that was they were terrified of the likely outcome of legislative council elections in 2020. outcome of legislative council elections in 2020. what were the rotection elections in 2020. what were the protection supposed elections in 2020. what were the protection supposed to elections in 2020. what were the protection supposed to be? - protection supposed to be? protection is largely depended on the chinese communists sticking to their word in thejoint the chinese communists sticking to their word in the joint declaration on thejoint declaration their
it was very much driven by him when thejoint declaration was agreed, and when people were arguing that there should be an arbitration mechanism in it, he said, no, no, no. and his argument was this. he said, and he had reason for realising this because he d been in the british embassy when it was burnt down during the cultural revolution, he said, the chinese leaders may be thuggish dictators, but they re men of their word. now, we know that part of that is true the first bit, but the second part isn t. and you can look at things all round the world, examples of the chinese simply breaking international agreements. president obama said it about them in relation to the wto. they ve done it in relation to the fortification of atolls and islands in the south china sea. and they ve comprehensively broken their word over the joint declaration. but then many people listening to this will think, look, that there s an element of double standards here because the uk held the territory fo
a tank man in hong kong. but i did always rather question the point that was made endlessly by my biggest critic, who was a former british ambassador in china called percy cradock, and he d been very close to margaret thatcher. it was very much driven by him when thejoint declaration was agreed, and when people were arguing that there should be an arbitration mechanism in it, he said, no, no, no. and his argument was this. he said, and he had reason for realising this because he d been in the british embassy when it was burnt down during the cultural revolution, he said, the chinese leaders may be thuggish dictators, but they re men of their word. now, we know that part of that is true the first bit, but the second part isn t. and you can look at things all round the world, examples of the chinese simply breaking international agreements. president obama said it about them in relation to the wto. they ve done it in relation
the chinese were. the chinese communist party, let me make a distinction, would keep their word, and they have pretty comprehensively broken their word, which is contained in an international treaty lodged at the united nations called thejoint declaration. you said at the time, you wrote at the time in the hong kong diaries, which you ve just published, that, ultimately, after the handover, much will depend on whether the chinese communist party can actually be trusted to honour one country, two systems, which was the deal agreed. hong kong s former chief executive, cy leung, who s now vice chairman of china s top political advisory body, said just days ago that hong kong s democracy is following the basic law and the principle that you agreed of one country, two systems. you re smiling. well, cy leung is, as the polls seem to suggest when people are asked in hong kong about it, is a pretty dubious piece of work, and whether or not he was a member of the communist party when i was