TNAG-2702-FCO40-3908-Memoirs-of-Sir-Percy-Cradock--diplomat-and-sinologist-1993 — Page 53

The negotiations,

however, proved fruitless.

They wound on into the summer, the autumn and the winter of

199, seventeen rounds in all, over a hundred and sixty

hours of talks. The British offered some significant

concessions, but the Chinese proved unyielding on all

major points. This rigidity no doubt reflected the fact

that they had been taken to the limit of their tolerance by

the earlier negotiations: they had reached a political

settlement and, as they had repeatedly warned, they were

not prepared to reopen it. But it may also have reflected

uncertainty in Peking about the succession to Deng

Xiaoping: noone had the confidence to be flexible. For the

Hong Kong government there were apparently also technical

constraints: dates before which legislation had to be

passed if it was to be ready for the district elections of

1994 and the legislative elections of 1995.

At the time of writing (the end of November 1993)

it is clear that the talks have collapsed and, though the

consequential decisions have not yet been taken, it seems

highly likely that the British and Hong Kong governments

are now prepared to take unilateral action and to submit

the Patten proposals in some form to the Legislative

Council.

If this course is followed, I fear we must expect

a renewed and probably final confrontation with China. The

Legislative Council may of course refuse the cup put to

them and cast out the proposals; or they may pass only a

watered-down version. But it is unlikely that these

manouevres, by what they see as a subordinate body, will

It