settle for the best terms we can get... I do not consider that as
giving China an absolute veto. I do not consider that Co-
operation with China in the interests of Hong Kong, which has always been the course I have advocated, means acquiescence in
everything the Chinese say. It means, and always has meant,
tough negotiations. But when you come to the crunch, and when you consider the interests of Hong Kong, it is better to have a
settlement rather than to have a lasting confrontation which, as
I will try to show to the Committee, will only damage Hong Kong
and leave it worse of than it began.
Chairman: Sir Percy, if I may just intervene, do you
relate these problems, this tragedy, entirely to the Governor's
reform package? Is it not the position, as I think we were told in Hong Kong, that China was already being extremely difficult over very important issues related to the transition phase before
October 1992 and that these difficulties seemed to be
accumulating even before Mr Patten stood up and made his
proposals.
Sir Percy Cradock: I do not accept that for a moment,
Chairman. I will explain why. The Chinese have always been. difficult over Hong Kong, which is a very sensitive issue for
them, even in the best years of co-operation after the 1984
agreement. After 1989, that is Tiananmen, they became even more difficult and I do not deny that for a moment. Dealing with them has always required the most extraordinary reserves of ingenuity and patience. But that is a very different matter from saying
that all this problem, as you describe it, was there before Mr
Patten came. We were in a tolerable position in earlier 1992.
The Chinese saw, and see, the Patten reforms as a
fundamental change of course on the part of the British
Government. They see them as going back, a breach, of the
political and constitutional settlement we reached with them on
the basis of the 1984
1984 agreement and the 1990 agreement on directly elected seats. They believe they have been cheated.
They feel extremely strongly about it. I am not saying that they are right or that they are politically justified or legally justified: that is not germane to what I am saying. I am saying
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