Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Sarah Montague.

My guest today is a political elder statesman who has played key roles in British political life

as a member of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet, as EU Commissioner for External Relations, as chairman of the Conservative Party,

and as Britain's last governor of Hong Kong. In 1997, it was Chris, now Lord Patton,

who was charged with overseeing the transfer of Hong Kong to mainland China.

In his last words to the people of the territory,

he said, now Hong Kong people are to run Hong Kong.

That is the promise, and that is the unshakable destiny. On the 25th anniversary

of the handover, has that promise been broken and could the UK have done more to honour it? Lord Patton,

welcome to hard talk. Thank you. Has that promise that Hong Kong would be run by Hong Kong people

been broken?

Yes.

And it was based on the perhaps misguided assumption,

which some of us had occasional doubts about,

that the Chinese Communist Party, let me make a distinction,

would keep their word, and they have pretty comprehensively broken their word,

which is contained in an international treaty lodged at the United Nations, both of all the joint

declaration. You said at the time, you wrote at the time in the Hong Kong Diaries, which you've

just published, that ultimately after the handover, much will depend on whether the Chinese

Communist Party can actually be trusted to honour one country, two systems, which was the deal agreed.

Hong Kong's former chief executive, C. Weilung, who's now vice chairman of China's top political

advisory body, said just days ago that Hong Kong's democracy is following the basic law and the

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