The key question in diplomacy, as in everyday life, is not
what you want, but how you are going to get it. Slapping
down on the negotiating table an "uncompromising" demand
for an extension of the present lease, and insisting on
"rigid adherence to the status quo" would liquidate both
empire and prosperity in short order. I doubt if anyone
wants that. To suggest, as Professor Skidelski and Mr
Patrikeef do tha
that it
It is possible or tactically advisable
to negotiate in this way shows no awareness of the simple
and
power relationships; no practical concern for the welfare
of the Colony, and no understanding of Chinese national
pride, the most powerful and volatile element in the whole
equation;
The prosperity of Hong Kong depends on a secure Sino-British
entente about its future. This will not be achieved by
adversarial negotiations.
of continuity available.
We must aim for the maximum degree
But in doing so, we must also
bear constantly in mind the old risk of responsibility
without power. If our desire to continue administering
the Colony so strong that we wish to perpetuate it even if
we have no real control over events? Look at the history
of China over the last fifteen years the upheavals,
the power struggles and the drastic reversals of policy,
and the West's inability to predict these sea changes.
Is
it necessarily in our interests, or those of the inhabitants,
Pussine
to seek blindly to perpetuate into an uncertain future the
arrangements which have worked in different circumstances
K
4.