# Patten hits outs at China's 'vengeful' acts in Hong Kong

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patten-hits-outs-at-chinas-vengeful-acts-in-hong-kong/966545>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [June 21, 2022, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patten-hits-outs-at-chinas-vengeful-acts-in-hong-kong/966545 "2022-06-21T10:15:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2022, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patten-hits-outs-at-chinas-vengeful-acts-in-hong-kong/966545/1 "2022-06-21T10:15:20Z")

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the last British govenor of hong kong acts surprised that china did exactly what everyone else in the world thought they’d do once they had control of HK

Wasn’t part of the criticism against him and the British government that they were making it impossible for legal British citizens to leave hong kong because they didn’t want a flood of “them”? ala India and Pakistan?

[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/patten-hits-outs-at-china-s-vengeful-acts-in-hong-kong/ar-AAYGMhB?li=BB141NW3&ocid=MSNHP\_U646](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/patten-hits-outs-at-china-s-vengeful-acts-in-hong-kong/ar-AAYGMhB?li=BB141NW3&ocid=MSNHP_U646)

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**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2022, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patten-hits-outs-at-chinas-vengeful-acts-in-hong-kong/966545/2 "2022-06-21T14:39:14Z")

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I recall the irony that the British only started to “allow” Hong Kong to resemble a democracy a few years before the transfer to China, so their complaints ring rather hollow (even if well justified).

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**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2022, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patten-hits-outs-at-chinas-vengeful-acts-in-hong-kong/966545/3 "2022-06-22T01:06:08Z")

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The British government created BNO or [British National Overseas](https://www.ukabroad.net/bno-passport/#:~:text=BNO%20Passport%20Definition.%20A%20British%20National%20%28Overseas%29%20passport,result%20of%20the%20Hong%20Kong%20Act%20of%201985.) passport. That an a quarter is worth 25 cents.

The UK probably could have made HK an independent country if they had started in the post WW2 era. As pointed out by JKellyMap, the colonial power tried to enable democracy a few short years before the handover. These pathetic attempts were made post the [Sino-British Joint Declaration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-British_Joint_Declaration), which governed the handover to China in 1997. This also set the stage for the post 1997 HK agreement for international relations covered by the “[Basic Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Basic_Law)” (which was really basic).