Beijing Blasts 'pathetic' Chris Patten Over FCC Talk

Beijing on Thursday expressed “strong indignation” over comments made by Hong Kong’s last governor Chris Patten, saying he would be condemned to “everlasting infamy”.

The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong said Patten’s remarks to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club on Wednesday heaped accusations on the SAR government and distorted the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ principle and the Basic Law.

In a statement on its website, the Commissioner’s Office also accused Patten of smearing Beijing’s Hong Kong policy and tarnishing the country’s international image.

It described him as “the pathetic ‘last governor of Hong Kong’”, and said it was both “ridiculous and despicable” that Patten should cling to a colonialist mentality and meddle in Hong Kong’s affairs more than two decades after the handover.

“Since the unrest following the proposed amendment bill last year, Chris Patten and his ilk have eagerly twisted the truth, slung mud at the HKSAR Government's law-based governance, and venomously attacked the Hong Kong police's restrained law enforcement efforts, in a bid to sow social division and trample law and order,” the statement read.

“[Patten] instigated the youth to continue acting as willing pawns of the rioters for the latter's political gains, and incited confrontation against the Hong Kong police who are committed to protecting people's life and property safety.”

The statement said Patten had pitted himself against all Chinese people, and would be condemned by the international community.

Patten had spoken to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club by video conferencing.

He said he is extremely worried that it appears that Beijing is -- through the SAR government and others -- running Hong Kong and making decisions for it. He said Chief Executive Carrie Lam and others will have to live with their consciences.

The last Hong Kong governor also said that he thinks the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and the central government's liaison office have "certainly" violated Article 22 of the Basic Law and intervened in local affairs, saying they are organs of Beijing.

Patten also said protesters should not be provoked into committing violence

by "police violence", and disagreed with the idea from some demonstrators that they should force the US to drop Hong Kong's special trade status and hurt Beijing's interests, in what has been described as "mutual destruction".