As an insider's account, The Hong Kong Diaries is filled with that daily sense of grappling with a multi-headed hydra ... There is an inescapable poignancy to reading this diary in 2022: it is a snapshot of a unique moment at the end of empire, and a now fading picture of an extraordinary society that flourished in its brief moment of freedom. Isabel Hilton, Times Literary Supplement The Diaries shows that Patten’s relationship with Chinese officials is often less than harmonious, and at times antagonistic. Lu ended up describing Patten as “a sinner for thousand generations to come” (p.86). This is a rather heavy condemnation for Patten, as if the Chinese ‘face’ was ‘torn off’. Conclusion Chris Patten urges UK to investigate origins of coronavirus in China". The Guardian. 30 April 2020. When C.H. Tung talked to me privately about having secret negotiations with China on all this, I pointed out that there isn’t much to be said for trying to agree something with Lu Ping which can’t then be delivered by Legco. Sir John Bowring ( Governor of Hong Kong 1854–1859) and Sir John Pope Hennessy ( Governor of Hong Kong 1877–1882) – a Conservative MP before he entered the Colonial Service – were predecessors.

The Doon School Weekly" (PDF). Doonschool.com. 10 October 2009 . Retrieved 17 March 2015. [ permanent dead link] Chris Patten (2005). Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs. Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9855-5. Lord Patten spent much of his time in Hong Kong struggling against British officials and members of the local elite who believed it was not worth trying to push China to accept more democracy in pre-handover Hong Kong-much less expanding it without China's approval. Some of the most riveting detail in this rich volume relates to these tensions. ... The author's entertaining language brings these diaries to life. Economist

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The diary helps me conduct different thought experiments. If David Wilson had been the last governor, maybe there would have been no need for any non-binding promises at all! Both the territory and the populace would automatically welcome a peaceful reunification with the Motherland—splendid! In 2003 he was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Bath. In September 2005 he was elected a Distinguished Honorary Fellow of Massey College in the University of Toronto (the only person so elected except for the Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) as well as receiving an honorary D.S.Litt. degree from the University of Trinity College, Toronto and an honorary D.Litt. degree from the University of Ulster. [59] In March 2009, Patten received the title Doctor honoris causa by South East European University. Patten receiving the union flag after it was lowered for the last time at Government House - the governor’s official residence - during a farewell ceremony in Hong Kong in 1997. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images Patten married Lavender Thornton, a barrister, on 11 September 1971. [53] They have three daughters, including the actress Alice Patten.

Yet Patten is also very interested in maintaining his family life. The Diaries is full of sentiments and passions for his wife (Lavender) and three daughters (Kate, Laura and Alice). Patten dedicates his book to Lavender. He states that Lavender “gave up her career so that [he] could go to Hong Kong”. Lavender also helped him “hugely in his work as Governor,” and loved Hong Kong as much as he did. Indeed, The Diaries reveals Patten’s deep love for his three daughters, yet grounded in his views of individualism, independence, self-reliance, and venturing. Patten let his three children decide whether they lived in Hong Kong or not (pp.19-20). There is a dilemma in publishing a diary that even as articulate as an MP at Westminster cannot run away from, namely integrity and readability. Reporting every bit of emotions and every chance encounter can put readers to sleep, or conversely invite scepticism if brevity has been preferred to comprehensiveness. On the other hand, British operate from a different cultural history where there is far more emphasis on the sanctity of written contracts. Given British confidence in their legal system, it is often assumed that all aspects of a contract should be honored and violations settled in court. The differences in the rule of law and justice system between the UK and China can be seen in Patten’s conversation with Lu Ping. As widely known, British jurisdiction system lies in common law tradition, while in China, people are governed by the rules of the Chinese Communist Party. In one conversation, Patten mentioned the rule of law, and reports that “Lu said, but we have the rule of law too”. Patten replied, “[No,] you have rule by law” (p.72).

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krystalyang38 (22 September 2020). "Who is Lord Chris Patten?". The Millennial Source Ltd . Retrieved 28 March 2023. Coconuts Hong Kong (9 July 2020). "Carrie Lam is a 'lamentable' figure in Hong Kong history, ex-colonial governor Chris Patten says". Coconuts Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020 . Retrieved 15 July 2020. Sumption, Jonathan (4 October 2008). "The pragmatic approach". The Spectator. 308 (9397): 38. Archived from the original on 12 January 2009 . Retrieved 23 December 2008. One way The Diaries reveals the impact of culture is its documentation of the differences in negotiating styles. Patten documents how British negotiators often disclose large amounts of information during negotiations, and also often let the rivals know their intentions.

In November 2016 Patten was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour, and was presented with the award by the French Ambassador to the United Kingdom Sylvie Bermann at Kensington Palace Gardens. [60]Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, KG , CH , PC ( Chinese: 彭定康; [2] born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life peer in 2005 and has been Chancellor of the University of Oxford since 2003. He is one of the two living former governors of Hong Kong. The other is David Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn. Patten has become a kind of living reminder of that shift on the right. He was the architect of Major’s 1992 election victory, built on a belief that, post-Thatcher, the party must be “tolerant, efficient and generous-spirited”. Those are three values for the scrapbook. Had he not lost his own seat in Bath in that election, partly because he was associated with the poll tax, he would have become, at 48, chancellor of the exchequer. His subsequent career has been a tour of duty of threatened institutions and imperial relics, the more grown-up version of Portillo on a train. He was, of course, Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong, lampooned in Private Eye as the grand poobah, before the handover to China in 1997. He followed that up with the job of which he is most proud – establishing a new, non-sectarian police force in Northern Ireland, as part of the Good Friday agreement. He was then an EU commissioner, partly responsible for the union’s foreign policy. Then chairman of the BBC Trust, fighting a rearguard action against cuts. For the last 19 years he has been chancellor of Oxford University. In each of those roles, he has been pitted not against the left, but mostly against the Daily Mail and the ideologues and nut jobs in his own party. University of Ulster News Release – UU Unveils Summer Honorary Graduates". News.ulster.ac.uk. 28 February 2005. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016 . Retrieved 30 June 2010. The Legislative Council became a fully elected legislature for the first time in 1995 and extensively expanded its functions and organisations throughout the last years of colonial rule. [20]