A survey of British history easily yields the observation that, although the British may seem on the outside to be gentlemanly and civilized, they carry in their bones barbarity, bravery, and a thirst for plunder. Otherwise, Britain would never have become the world's foremost colonizer, and never would have ruled the world for so many years. Their civilized, gentlemanly veneer was fed with the sweat and blood of innumerable colonized people, among them the people of China. In this, they resembled in many respects Japanese militarism. As the Japanese economy developed, so too did the country's degree of civilization rise—but in the heinous crimes that they committed against China and other peoples of Asia, the Japanese also revealed their country's ugly side: savagery and bloody atrocity. The British distinguished themselves with an unflagging, never-say-die spirit. The sight of the British people kicking up a graceful, light-footed waltz next to the rubble of The Blitz was a sight that became famous around the world.
In comparison, a large percentage of those holding power in recent Chinese history lacked both civilization and refinement. They lacked the intrepid spirit needed to take risks, indulged themselves in lives of luxury, and prostrated themselves before lust and greed. The end result was a people without the desire to rise up and powerless to resist the incursions of foreign bandits. As the American president Theodore Roosevelt once said: "[In] this world the nation that has trained itself to a career of unwarlike and isolated ease is bound, in the end, to go down before other nations which have not lost the manly and adventurous qualities."
More than a hundred years ago, the muddle-headedness and impotence displayed by the Qing government toward foreign powers, their blind worship of all things foreign, their willingness to accept base humiliation, left the world with a harmful impression of the constitution of the Chinese people, and swelled foreign powers' already-overweening barbarity. Where Hong Kong was concerned, the British government had the impression that China was as it had been, weak and easily bullied, muddle-headed and impotent, buckling at the knees at the first sight of strength. That was why they wracked their brains, thinking up every kind of sly stratagem imaginable, in a vain attempt to humiliate the Chinese government. They were not willing to spit out the delicious morsel they had gobbled up more than a hundred years ago.
But, in this case, the British were counting their chickens before they hatched.
The Ulterior Motives of Hong Kong's "Thousand-Year Criminal"
On New Year's Day of 1992, from a tall government building in fog-shrouded London, the British government sent forth to its legions of bureaucrats a momentous decision: Hong Kong Governor David Wilson would be removed from his post and forced into early retirement at the age of 57.
The British government had not informed Governor Wilson in advance, making him the first governor of Hong Kong to receive such treatment.
Hong Kong public opinion was up in arms. Wilson himself was befuddled; why suddenly announce his forced resignation? The Chinese government found it all quite strange: what was the British government playing at?
It turned out that some individuals in Hong Kong had brought suit against the British government, alleging that the Governor was too soft on China, that he was ceding too much, continually setting back Britain's negotiating position.
Governor Wilson himself, in response to a journalist's question, said: "I am convinced that it is of utmost important to establish a healthy cooperative relationship between China and Hong Kong. China will play a large role in both everyday life in Hong Kong and in its future prospects. We must establish healthy cooperation."
David Wilson was a graduate of Oxford University, and studied Mandarin at the University of Hong Kong. He was also a judicious, far-sighted politician. After taking up the governorship in 1987, he pressed consistently for cooperation between Hong Kong and the Chinese government. As the first British lead representative in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group, he stayed in constant contact behind the scenes with Lu Ping. The two of them took every chance they could to meet away from the prying eyes of the media. On such occasions, Lu Ping took a sedan from Shenzhen to Man Kam To Control Point, got out of the car at Luohu Bridge, got into another sedan (sent by Governor Wilson), then turned around and drove into Hong Kong, ascending a small hill nearby and coming to a stop nearby a helicopter waiting to ferry him to the secluded two-storey villa in Fanling where Wilson lived. In this colonial-style mansion, many of the problems between China and the UK were quietly worked out in secret discussions between the two men.
Lu Ping's last secret meeting with Governor Wilson was on a weekend morning in the fall of 1991. The talk went well, and the two of them enjoyed lunch together in the governor's official residence.
And now the open-minded governor had been booted out.
After Wilson returned to the UK, he was ennobled by the queen and joined the House of Lords. When he saw the complete destruction of the Sino-UK cooperation he had built at the hands of Chris Patten, he gave voice to his pain in the form of a speech denouncing Patten's methods. He said, "The Sino-British Joint Declaration set forth the framework for a smooth transition, and the 'direct train' option is an excellent arrangement … Only friendly cooperation and consultation with China will truly benefit Hong Kong."