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Britain's Last HK Governor Bemoans Territory's Loss of Autonomy

Natalie Liu

   WASHINGTON - As Britain's last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten
   introduced a series of democratic reforms in preparation for what was
   expected to be 50 years of relative autonomy following the territory's
   return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Since then, he has watched that
   autonomy get slowly whittled away.

   What Beijing has done to Hong Kong is the "biggest assault on freedom
   and liberty in any city in the 21st century, certainly as big as
   anywhere else," Patten said at a virtual policy forum last week.

   "What they're doing in Hong Kong is to destroy what was promised in
   Hong Kong: a high degree of autonomy -- one country, two systems.
   They're doing that in a way which I must say will give Taiwan even
   greater room for thought because I'm sure what they're doing in Hong
   Kong, they would like to do one day in Taiwan."

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