20
Chinese
Hong Kong politician regarded as a subversive by Beijing) outside
No.10 Downing Street.8 Another example concerns
explanations for the new British approach as evident in the
appointment of a senior politician to be Governor in Hong Kong
and in the presentation of his proposals. Some senior leaders
have been quoted as seeing this as evidence of Britain's
allegedly long standing practice of de-stabilising colonies."
Still others saw a link between Patten and his proposals on the
one hand and the support given to them by Western governments,
the arms sales to Taiwan by the French and The Americans and even
the election of President Clinton as evidence of a coordinated
campaign to undermine Communism in China. 10 A senior Chinese
researcher explained that there is a fear in the Chinese
government that Britain could "cause trouble" by encouraging Hong
Kong to become "too independent"; that Hong Kong could become
"too strong" with "too many independent institutions".
Such views not only attest to the long standing tendency
to subscribe to the conspiracy view of history when dealing with
an adversary, but they militate against taking into account the
8
A2/6-7.
9
See for example, Ta Kung Pao 31 May 1992 in SWB FE/1395
See the remarks to this effect by the most senior and venerable leaders Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun and Peng Zhen cited in the Hong Kong newspaper Hsin Pao 27 November 1992, in SWB FE/1552 A2/4-5.
in
10 They found support in this from an unexpected quarter the person of Lee Kuan Yew, the Senior Minister from Singapore. (See The South China Morning Post 15 December 1992)
11
Notes from a discussion with researchers of the Institute of West European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 3/8/92.