Chris Patten Calls for Unity to Resist The CCP

On Monday, June 20th, Chris Pattentold the Foreign Correspondents’ Club at the Royal Overseas League in central London, he said the totalitarian regime run by Xi Jinping acts as an accomplice to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Western democracies should support countries targeted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with actions, not just words, citing the example of trade sanctions Beijing imposed on Australian producers after former Foreign Minister Marise Payne called for an investigation into the origin of the CCP virus in April 2020, Patten said.

Patten has just published his memoir, “The Hong Kong Diaries”, about his role as a British government appointee who oversaw the transition of the colony’s administration from Britain to Communist China from 1992 to Hong Kong’s return in 1997.

In recent years, Beijing has tightened its grip on the region, culminating in the introduction of a national security law that has almost stifled the freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong people.

Now the CCP is preparing to educate students that Hong Kong was never a British colony, and that although it was occupied, yet originally was Chinese territory since ancient times.

“I’m delighted to be able to demonstrate that as the last governor of Hong Kong, that I do actually exist, that I’m not a figment of my imagination,” Patten said, referencing the proposed textbooks.

On Monday, about 1,000 people gathered outside a Hong Kong court to protest with slogans, as 47 democracy activists were charged with conspiracy to commit subversion and the authorities intensified their suppression of the opponents.

Patten said the world needed to be managed by involving Communist China, for example on climate change and pandemics, but that ultimately, “we have to constrain China, not contain it, but constrain it”.