The Asian Values Ballyhoo: Patten's Common Sense on Hong Kong and Beyond

What are we to make of Asia today, with its "miracle" economies in nose dives? And what is to be the fate of now-sputtering Hong Kong, once a humming engine for regional economic growth? In his new book, Christopher Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, writes that he does not want "to contribute to the temporarily discontinued library of books puffing Asia. Tiger virtues, tiger values, tiger miracles, tiger futures have been so recklessly celebrated that we find ourselves, boom or bust, told that all the tigers are skinned and stuffed. What has happened in Asia has been remarkable; once exaggerated, it is now belittled." In a spirited but thoughtful way, Patten provides "some middle ground in this important debate about Asian development."

In 1992 Patten, a committed and liberal Tory politician, was given the challenge of guiding Hong Kong through the remaining five tense years before it reverted to Chinese control. His mission was beset with controversy over how best to manage relations with Beijing. Since the 1997 reversion to China, however, the turmoil of the Patten years and the anxieties over whether "one country, two systems" could work for Hong Kong have become faint memories for the island's people, who suddenly find themselves beleaguered by circumstances not of China's making. Engulfed in the larger Asian economic crisis, they found their wealth evaporating because of falling real estate values, tumbling stock markets, and rising unemployment. Patten, by contrast, spent a much more pleasant year reflecting on his experiences and thinking about Western policies toward Asia in general. His book goes beyond Hong Kong, confronting the grand issue of how the West should deal with a China emerging pell-mell as a great power and, even more broadly, the questions of the likely future of Asia as a whole and of ensuring that East and West can become partners in world politics. Despite his denials that he has written a memoir, Patten's personal report of his Hong Kong experiences certainly fits the genre, but his above-the-fray philosophizing makes his book much more than that.

THE TANGO DANCER

From the day Patten took up his duties at Government House, he endured constant sniping, often from those he calls OCHs (Old China Hands) and OFOCs (Old Friends of China). The OCHs, especially the Sinologues in the British Foreign Office, fretted that a politician without diplomatic experience could not appreciate the mysterious sensitivities of the Chinese and the convoluted practices and taboos essential for dealing successfully with them. The OFOCs, who ranged from Hong Kong tycoons to Johnny-come-latelies to the Asian scene, shamelessly strove to become Beijing's lackeys. Patten makes only a slight effort to mask his scorn for the pusillanimous crowd who counseled kowtowing to Beijing, but he vividly recounts the battles without undue animus and without naming names. Throughout, Patten holds fast to a straightforward, commonsense view. "We are lured into thinking that there is a special, and exact, way of dealing with China, which turns out on close inspection to be one part correct to four parts mumbo jumbo," he writes. "China should be treated just like we would treat anyone else, not on the basis of voodoo or the assumption that it requires its own rule book."

Patten arrived in Hong Kong with a moral compass: an abiding faith that human history is best advanced by pluralistic democracy and free markets. The second belief gave him no trouble, but the first plagued him throughout his tour. Patten felt that it was a disgrace that Britain's last colony should not be prepared, as all its other colonies had been, for an independent and democratic future. Since independence was not in the cards, Patten quickly got to work on advancing democracy, strengthening human rights, and boosting the rule of law.

The biggest clash came over his determination to expand electoral participation as far as possible. The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong held that for elections to the Legislative Council only 20 legislators would be directly elected, while 30 legislators would be chosen from "functional constituencies" representing various occupations and 10 picked by an election committee. Patten set about to stretch the limits. First, he opposed Chinese pressure to introduce proportional representation for the direct elections, which would have hurt the popular democratic forces by giving some seats to pro-Beijing minority elements. More important, he changed the rules for the 1995 "functional" elections by expanding the number of occupations qualifying for representation and insisting that anyone in any way associated with a profession or occupation could vote. In the past, only directors and officers of companies, partners of law firms, and top professionals had voted. In the 1995 election, secretaries, clerks, and even drivers cast ballots along with their CEOs. Patten, clearly, implanted a craving for democracy in the Hong Kong people.