Chris Patten: Craven Britain has demeaned itself with China, Brexit will make it worse

Hong Kong’s last governor is ‘astonished’ at Britain’s behaviour and says it must be firmer as it searches for a post-EU trade relationship.

The British government’s “kowtowing” to China on issues including human rights and Hong Kong’s quest for democracy will become increasingly craven following the UK’s departure from the European Union, the former colony’s last governor has warned.

In an interview with the Guardian marking the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese control, on 1 July 1997, Lord Patten attacked what he called London’s repeated failure to challenge Beijing over its erosion of the territory’s freedoms and autonomy.

The Conservative peer said a sequence of “outrageous breaches” of the Sino-British handover agreement – including the alleged abduction of a group of political booksellers – had prompted little more than “a slightly embarrassed clearing of the throat” and some “tut-tutting” from Downing Street…

Source: Chris Patten: A craven Britain has demeaned itself with China, Brexit will make it worse | World news | The Guardian