By Reuters
A
pro-democracy protester gets out of her tent set-up on the road
decorated with messages in the part of Hong Kong's financial central
district protesters are occupying November 2, 2014. "689" is a nickname
for Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, in reference to the
number of votes he gained out of 1200 during the 2012 Hong Kong Chief
Executive Election.
Damir Sagolj/ Reuters
Britain is not putting enough pressure on
China to stick to its side of a pact on the transfer of Hong Kong's sovereignty
because it is worried about damaging trade links, former Hong Kong governor
Chris Patten said on Tuesday.
China took back control of the former British
colony in 1997 through a "one country, two systems" formula that
allows wide-ranging autonomy and specifies universal suffrage as an eventual
goal.
But Beijing said in August it would
effectively screen candidates who want to run for city leader, a decision that
has prompted weeks of street protests by pro-democracy activists who said it
rendered the notion of democracy meaningless.
Last month, British Prime Minister David
Cameron said it was important the people of Hong Kong were able to enjoy the
freedoms promised to them, drawing criticism from China.
Cameron has not directly criticized China
publicly, however, and the Foreign Office has not escalated the matter.
"When China asserts that what is
happening in Hong Kong is nothing to do with us, we should make it absolutely
clear publicly and privately that that is not the case," Patten told a
panel of British lawmakers holding an inquiry into Hong Kong's progress toward
democracy.
"There has always been quite a strong
group in government and the business community which believes that you can only
do business with China if you carefully avoid in all circumstances treading on
China's toes or saying anything the Chinese disagree with," he said.
"It encourages China to behave badly
that we go on doing that."
Patten, the last British governor of Hong
Kong before the 1997 handover, said such comments by Chinese officials were to
"spit in the face" of the 1984 Joint Declaration on the conditions
under which Hong Kong would be handed over.
"It is amazing that when they say that
sort of thing the (British) Foreign Office doesn't make a fuss because the
Joint Declaration provides obligations on China to us for 50 years ... this is
the Joint Declaration not the Chinese declaration," he said.
In September, the panel of British lawmakers
rejected demands by the Chinese ambassador to Britain and the National People's
Congress Foreign Affairs committee to shelve their inquiry.
Patten criticized the government for not
summoning the Chinese ambassador to Britain over the situation and said the
British government should have spoken up in June when China issued a
"white paper" policy document on Hong Kong underscoring China's
sovereignty and ultimate authority over the city.
He said he believed China's moves were in
breach of Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
"Without throwing verbal hand grenades
we could actually have made it plain that we thought what was happening in Hong
Kong was, to put it blandly, extremely unwise," he said. "In some
ways we may have made it more difficult to resolve."
Britain should now be doing more to help the
governments of Hong Kong and China settle the situation, he said, calling on
Hong Kong's leaders to offer more concessions to the protesters to encourage
them to back down.
In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hong Lei told a news briefing that foreign countries and individuals
should not meddle in Hong Kong affairs, and lashed out at Patten.
"As the UK's last colonial governor in
Hong Kong, the relevant person should know better, recognize the change in the
times and immediately stop inciting the illegal Occupy Central
activities," Hong said on Wednesday.