Percy Cradock - Controversies

Controversies

The two major retreats of Cradock and his compromising attitude in the Sino-British negotiation aroused considerable controversies at that time. Cradock defended that he acted from a realist point of view and he thought that the United Kingdom actually had "no card" on hands and had little bargaining power at all. The main reasons were firstly, Hong Kong itself must rely on the provision of fresh water and food from the mainland China, secondly, the British Armed Forces stationing in Hong Kong were too weak to defend Hong Kong from the strong military presence of China's People's Liberation Army in the Far East, and thirdly, to sustain Hong Kong's prosperity and economic development in future, Britain must cooperate with China. From the legal point of view, Cradock believed that since the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory would expire in 1997, Britain would no longer be able to govern Hong Kong effectively thereafter because the New Territories would have to be returned to China even though Hong Kong Island and Kowloon would not, and that was one of the main reasons why he advised Thatcher to compromise with China. He concluded that the solution that would best serve the interests of Hong Kong was to prevent China from acting unilaterally and to fight for the interests of the Hong Kong people within a limited and mutually agreed framework.

However, the attitude of Cradock was heavily criticised. After the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed, the general public opinions in Hong Kong and Britain were that it could not rebuild the confidence of the Hong Kong people towards their future. Many critics even denounced Britain and the Joint Declaration as betraying the Hong Kong people and the future of Hong Kong. Among them, the Economist attacked that both Cradock and Thatcher made no difference from former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who betrayed Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany by signing the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler in 1938. Apart from that, some commentators suggested that Cradock had no reason to concur with China's view on the validity of the three treaties because under the general practice of the international law, one must conclude a new treaty in order to invalidate and replace the old one, and therefore the three treaties were actually still in force.

It was also commented that Cradock was indeed not a liberalist because he and the British government did not act for the interests of Hong Kong on the negotiation table. In fact, the British government believed that maintaining a friendly Sino-British relationship was the utmost importance in preserving the British business interests in China. To give-up Hong Kong in exchange for a long-term friendship with China was regarded as profitable especially to the business sector in the United Kingdom. In addition, as the Joint Declaration was designed to bring stability to Hong Kong, it effectively closed the "back door" of Britain and therefore avoided a possible influx of 3 million British subjects of Hong Kong to seek asylum or right of abode there.

Cradock was a bitter critic of Governor Patten's political and democracy reform, blaming him for enraging the Chinese government of which he thought Patten should be responsible for. He also blamed that the reform package damaged the agreed "through-train" arrangement and other transitional arrangements, and would only bring adverse effect to the democratization of post-1997 Hong Kong. Nevertheless, his pro-Beijing standpoint attracted much opposition and criticism in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. The mainstream public opinion at that time was that the memory of the Tiananmen crackdown was still vividly in the mind of many Hong Kong people, and that was why Britain had the responsibility to adequately safeguard the human rights in Hong Kong, and to show support for Patten's political reform. Even though the colonial legislature would not survive after 1997, many thought that his reform was worthwhile for Hong Kong to experience the benefits resulting from a democratically elected Legislative Council, and to voice out the discontent of the Hong Kong residents to the Chinese government by voting in the election. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons also stated that it would be disreputable for the United Kingdom for not introducing political reform in response to the demand of the people of Hong Kong.

Although Governor Patten's political reform was generally supported in Hong Kong, Cradock insisted that if Britain stood against China, Britain would be very difficult to bargain for Hong Kong any more. In an interview in 1996 with The Common Sense, a documentary produced by the Radio Television Hong Kong, Cradock commented that the United Kingdom nearly lost all her influence over China because the two countries had been in political dispute. When asked if his attitude was equal to "kow-tow" to China, he admittedly replied that no matter the Hong Kong people were willing or not, Hong Kong must be handed-over to China in 1997. He advised the people of Hong Kong that to build a harmonious relationship with China was always better than confrontation and expressing discontent. On the other hand, in the interview, he called for the Hong Kong people to face the reality and not to believe in any illusion and false hope of democracy brought forward by Chris Patten. When asked if he was advising the Hong Kong people to obey China on everything, he said that the people of Hong Kong should know who their "Master" was and what they could do was to try their best to convince the Chinese authority to follow what was written in the Joint Declaration, but he reiterated that most importantly, they must face the reality.

In response to Cradock's criticisms on the political reform, Governor Patten struck back in a number of occasions, and in the Legislative Council meeting on 13 July 1995, he publicly mocked Cradock and those who appeased with China as suffering from "Craddockitis":

Though Cradock was in bad terms with Patten, he was highly valued by the Chinese government and the pro-Beijing camp. They generally praised him for playing a vital role in the making of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The Xinhua News Agency, the official news agency of the Chinese authority, once described that Cradock was a "friend of China and an experienced British diplomat who at the same time bears in mind to safeguard the interests of his country…History has proved his sincerity and objectivity."