On Sept 9, a bizarre event unfolded at St John’s Church, Waterloo Road, London, England. Although billed as the 80th birthday party of the former Hong Kong governor, Chris Patten, observers were puzzled, given that his birthday was on May 12, and a wider agenda was suspected. It was organized by Hong Kong Watch, the anti-China hate machine, and hosted by Benedict Rogers, the serial fantasist who recently quit as its chief executive officer in circumstances that remain shrouded in mystery (he now calls himself its “trustee”).
As is customary whenever Patten, Rogers and their followers gather, the evening quickly degenerated into the all-too-familiar hate fest. Although the organizers claimed almost 200 people attended, this was likely an exaggeration. They included the likes of the ex-legislator Lee Wing-tat and the journalist Steve Vines who ran away from Hong Kong in 2021 (and is now an “advisor” not only to Hong Kong Watch but also to the US-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHKF), run by Mark Clifford, who worked for the national security suspect, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, at Next Digital, and now spends his days peddling Beijing hostile propaganda and glorifying Lai).
Several fawning tributes were paid to Patten, who happily lapped them up. They were led by Rogers, who had previously appointed him a Hong Kong Watch patron. Sporting what he claimed was a “special tie” (it bore an image of Lion Rock), Rogers praised Patten for having given what he called “a rallying cry to continue the fight for Hong Kong and against the Chinese Communist Party’s repression”. Although Lee Wing-tat also joined in, he struck a sobering note, querying if Patten’s “feelings for Hong Kong now consist of frustrations, anxieties and certainties”.
However, the best was yet to come. From the UK-Hong Kong Symposium (previously known as the UK-Hong Kong Summit), Catherine Li Ka-yan thanked Patten for his “ongoing dedication, solidarity and support for Hong Kong”, which was revelatory. Li, who strangely calls herself an “artivist” (somebody, she explained, seeking change through the arts), earlier told Clifford’s CFHKF that Hong Kong was ruled by an “air of terror”, that freedom of expression had “gone”, and that the world should sing Glory to Hong Kong (July 26, 2023), and there was more.
Together with Finn Lau Cho-dik (the national security fugitive, founder of Stand with Hong Kong and father of the “Lam Chau”, or mutual destruction, policy), and Clark Leung Chun-hei (a UK-based activist), Li is a director of the UK-Hong Kong Symposium, which was established in February 2023 and became a registered company in February 2024. She and Lau, reportedly close friends, belong to the steering committee of the Symposium’s annual closed-door seminar. The other members are Rogers (which explains Li’s invitation), Chloe Cheung Hei-ching (who works for Clifford’s CFHKF), Simon Cheng Man-kit (the former UK consular official who admitted to soliciting prostitutes in Shenzhen but later changed his tune to hoodwink his way into the UK), and five individuals who choose to remain anonymous.
The UK-Hong Kong Symposium held its seminar this year at the Royal Horticultural Halls, Westminster, London, from April 27 to 29. It was chaired by Lau and made no secret of its subversive objectives. Its promotional literature proclaimed it would “persist in our path to liberate Hong Kong, furthering a community of resilience and solidarity”. Its motto was “persist, prepare, persevere”, and its discussions, as in its first seminar in 2023, focused on strategies for “liberating” Hong Kong. This should have surprised nobody present, as central to Lau’s “Lam Chau” strategy was the destruction of Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” governing policy.
The extent to which the UK-Hong Kong Symposium of Lau and Li had allied itself with the Hong Kong Watch of Patten and Rogers became even more apparent on the last day of the seminar, when it was addressed by another Hong Kong Watch patron, Lord (David) Alton. In 2019, Alton’s trip to Hong Kong was fully funded by Lau’s Stand with Hong Kong. In 2020-21, he also participated in the scandalous inquiry into the Hong Kong Police Force by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong, which was financed by Stand with Hong Kong and was stuffed with some of Westminster’s most rabid Sinophobes.
After congratulating Lau for organizing such a “successful event”, Alton delighted him even further when he said the world had to wake up to “the dangers presented by the Chinese Communist Party”. He added that it was time to end “business as usual” with China, and that Hong Kong’s new national security law “intensified the threat to every human right”. Lau must have been rubbing his hands in glee (he may have drafted the speech), and he will presumably have generously greased Alton’s palm, just as he did with the Hong Kong freebie in 2019.
If Patten is prepared to churn out this sort of bile for a slice of birthday cake, imagine what he would do in return for a banquet. But fear not. As Hong Kong spreads its wings and China gears up for the challenges of the 21st century, yesterday’s men can safely be left to choke on their own venom
However, it beggars belief that the United Kingdom tolerates Lau’s activities on its soil, particularly when China is a place it wants to do business with and have better relations. It is little wonder Lau has been accused by the Hong Kong authorities of colluding with a foreign power or with external elements to endanger national security, and anybody who has aided and abetted him deserves similar treatment. Any nation is entitled to defend itself from those elsewhere who wish it harm.
In 2021, Hong Kong’s High Court was informed that Lau was heavily involved in the insurrection of 2019-20, and was a valuable facilitator for those seeking to harm China. Despite this, the UK is now allowing him to continue in London where he left off in Hong Kong, which is intolerable. If, as the UK repeatedly claims, it supports the “one country, two systems” policy that underpinned the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong’s future of 1984 (and was absorbed into the Basic Law in 1990), it should act decisively against those who are trying to bring about the policy’s demise in the UK. If it does not, it will be evident to everybody that its professed support of the “one country, two systems” policy is a charade and that “Perfidious Albion” is alive and well.
Be that as it may, Patten’s “birthday party” has shed light on areas that needed illuminating, so some good has come of it. The links that he and his associates have formed with entities who are not only hostile to China, but also want to end Hong Kong’s way of life and divide the country, are there for all to see. Hong Kong Watch is aligned not only with people like Clifford, a useful idiot who has placed his black arts at the service of US foreign policy, but also with the likes of Lau, whose hatred of China is visceral and would happily see Hong Kong go up in smoke if it would harm Beijing.
As for Patten, he eagerly got stuck into his birthday cake, and clearly relished the obsequious company. He was also very grateful, which was presumably why he decided to repay his hosts five days later by putting the boot into China. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph (Sept 14), he said, as the outgoing chancellor of Oxford University, that dependence on China was putting British values at risk in higher education. The UK would be “delusional” not to toughen its stance against China, noting that over 150,000 Chinese students were currently enrolled at British universities. When asked if he wanted to escalate China’s risk level, he replied “Yes, I do,” sounding for all the world like the Cold War relic he has now sadly become.
However, Rogers, Lau and Alton will have been delighted by the interview. If Patten is prepared to churn out this sort of bile for a slice of birthday cake, imagine what he would do in return for a banquet. But fear not. As Hong Kong spreads its wings and China gears up for the challenges of the 21st century, yesterday’s men can safely be left to choke on their own venom.
The author is a senior counsel and law professor, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong SAR.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
