seriousness
of these warnings; which, if implemented,
would mean that the reforms could at best bring two years of
improved democracy, after the 1995
elections,
to be
followed by an indefinite period of a more repressive
system. To this had to be added the effect of divided
authority in the remaining years of British rule and, most
worrying of all, the strain on the Chinese commitment to the
Joint Declaration itself.
repeated
On the British side, there were
statements of readiness for discussion; but at the same time
the Government expressed their full backing for Mr Patten;
and the Foreign Secretary stated that the days of
negotiation with Peking over the head of Hong Kong were
past. In Hong Kong the Governor was criticised by the
business community, but otherwise enjoyed much personal
support, though this was coupled with a strong popular wish
that confrontation with China should be avoided, a typical
Hong Kong combination. In Britain itself attitudes were
less nuancé. The press preferred to portray the issue in the
terms of a simple morality play, in which the Governor
fought the good fight against the wicked Chinese in the
cause of democracy. The fact that the struggle took place
over the body of Hong Kong and the likely effect on Hong Kong
if the reforms were made law and the Chinese threats were
put into operation were aspects that received less
attention.
By the end of 1992 Sino-British relations had
fallen to their lowest level for some ten years. The speed
of the deterioration and the strength of the Chinese
10