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All of us probably remember the fateful date of June 30, 1997, when Chris Patten received the folded Union flag that had been lowered as British Rule came to an end in Hong Kong. His East and West was published a year later. Revisiting it over ten years later confirms for the reader much of what that gifted politician said.

Chris Patten’s role as the last Governor of Hong Kong was different in that, for his five years there, he was preparing for the hand over to China and fighting for a liberal democracy in which he firmly believes. He spends time exploring the extraordinary economic miracle that is Hong Kong.

Detailed accounts of his meetings with Chinese authorities and conversations with the Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng reveal for us the difficulties of preserving western values and liberal attitudes in a society that works in a different way.

We follow him through the struggle to replace the old Kai Tak airport, despite Chinese obstruction at every move, and through a losing battle to create a true democracy, since Chinese hegemony was a foregone conclusion.

The reader is still tempted to conclude that the correct move for the British government would have been to have given a full British passport to all Hong Kong’s inhabitants before the relinquishing of government.

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