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24 The End of Co-operation
The last section of this book has dealt with Hong Kong
from the time when it took over as the dominant element in
Sino-British relations to the point of my retirement in
1992. That period has a unifying theme in the efforts of
the two governments to come to a negotiated settlement on
Hong Kong's future and to co-operate in order to ensure a
smooth transition in 1997. But it was a course which was
never entirely free from controversy; it came under
particular strain in the years after Tiananmen; and from
October 1992 a new approch and new, more assertive tactics
were tried. We moved into rougher waters.
a
It is worth pausing at this point to look at the origins
and force of the criticisms levelled against the policy of
co-operation and to ask whether any other route could have
been followed.
On the British side,
co-operation was virtually
imposed by the hard facts of history and geography and by
the disparities of power, on this matter at least, between
Britain and China. The lease, which we recognized, meant
reversion, with or without safeguards. A military
response, in the sense of standing fast on the ceded
territory and daring China to do its worst, was considered
and dismissed at the outset. At any number of points in the
course of our exchanges in 1983 and 1984 defiance and
withdrawal from the talks would have been possible; it was
always the easy option; but it was rightly rejected as
destructive and indefensible, given our responsibility
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