Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Map: Hong Kong, 1997
- Introduction: prewar colony
- 1 Reoccupation: postwar comeback, 1945–7
- 2 Consolidation: the Grantham years, 1947–58
- 3 Growth: the 1960s
- 4 Transformation: the MacLehose years, 1971–82
- 5 Negotiations: Sino-British diplomacy, 1982–92
- 6 Confrontation: the Patten years, 1992–5
- 7 Future: to 1997 and beyond
- 8 Conclusions: endgame
- Appendixes
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Confrontation: the Patten years, 1992–5
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Map: Hong Kong, 1997
- Introduction: prewar colony
- 1 Reoccupation: postwar comeback, 1945–7
- 2 Consolidation: the Grantham years, 1947–58
- 3 Growth: the 1960s
- 4 Transformation: the MacLehose years, 1971–82
- 5 Negotiations: Sino-British diplomacy, 1982–92
- 6 Confrontation: the Patten years, 1992–5
- 7 Future: to 1997 and beyond
- 8 Conclusions: endgame
- Appendixes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
My goal is simply this – to safeguard Hong Kong's way of life.
(Governor Chris Patten, address to LegCo, 7 October 1992)Today's Chinese Government is not the Qing Dynasty Government and today's Chinese people are no longer the ‘sick man of East Asia’. Whoever has a wrong concept of time, and of whom they are dealing with, and tries to force history backward, will surely have lifted a rock only to drop it on his own foot.
(People's Daily, 20 November 1992)Chris Patten became the twenty-eighth governor of Hong Kong in July 1992. There can be little doubt that the five years of Governor Patten's stewardship from 1992 to 1997 will prove to have been the most controversial in Hong Kong's postwar history. He is the one individual associated with the territory who has won widespread international attention for Hong Kong. The very date ‘1997’ is now known across the globe. From the summer of 1992 Chris Patten made it apparent that he saw it as his responsibility to make a stand for Hong Kong; he wished therefore to enact legislation that might ensure that the territory was better equipped for its post-reversion future. In one of the most publicized speeches ever given by a governor of Hong Kong, Patten on 7 October 1992 outlined his policy programme to LegCo.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Hong Kong: The Road to 1997 , pp. 127 - 145Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997