armchairPrivate
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Good Read. Don't forget to click the news link and watch the short video.
4:28 a.m. | Updated BEIJING The ladys not for turning, Margaret Thatcher, who died on Monday, told an audience of fellow Conservatives in Britain in late 1980. The phrase would become a signature of her personality and governing style.
Yet three years later she did turn before China, on the issue of Britains sovereignty over Hong Kong. It may have been one of the few times.
For a year starting in September 1982, when Ms. Thatcher traveled to Beijing to meet Deng Xiaoping and begin discussions about the future of Hong Kong, which Britain had ruled since 1842, she tried to argue that Britain could, and should, hold on to it after much of its land was due to be handed back in 1997, on the basis that some parts had been ceded in perpetuity.
She failed, after a year of defending a position unacceptable, at the very outset, to the Chinese government, as Sir David Akers-Jones, a former acting governor of the colony, wrote in his memoir, Feeling the Stones. Had the Iron Lady met her match?
For the British Prime Minister this was a discussion about sovereignty and administration. For the Chinese, there was never any question about the recovery of sovereignty, Mr. Akers-Jones wrote. In 1984 Britain and China signed a treaty declaring all of Hong Kong would be handed back to China in 1997.
Here in Beijing today, in editorials and articles, her turn was noted approvingly by some, while others noted, disturbingly, talk here that it was perhaps one of the few times she behaved like a woman. (Chinas political culture is unfriendly to women and there are few women in positions of power in the Communist Party.)
Thatcher managed to understand that China is not Argentina and Hong Kong is not the Falklands, wrote the Global Times in an editorial, referring to the war over sovereignty she successfully had led to retain the islands in the south Atlantic, claimed by Argentina, shortly before the Hong Kong talks began. She signed the joint declaration, which set the foundation for Hong Kongs return, the newspaper wrote, referring to the treaty that returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty.
We can say that she made her biggest compromise as prime minister in this issue, it continued. Its fair to say this, even though frictions between China and the UK existed until Hong Kongs return in 1997......
..........
The Time the Iron Lady 'Turned' Before China - NYTimes.com
4:28 a.m. | Updated BEIJING The ladys not for turning, Margaret Thatcher, who died on Monday, told an audience of fellow Conservatives in Britain in late 1980. The phrase would become a signature of her personality and governing style.
Yet three years later she did turn before China, on the issue of Britains sovereignty over Hong Kong. It may have been one of the few times.
For a year starting in September 1982, when Ms. Thatcher traveled to Beijing to meet Deng Xiaoping and begin discussions about the future of Hong Kong, which Britain had ruled since 1842, she tried to argue that Britain could, and should, hold on to it after much of its land was due to be handed back in 1997, on the basis that some parts had been ceded in perpetuity.
She failed, after a year of defending a position unacceptable, at the very outset, to the Chinese government, as Sir David Akers-Jones, a former acting governor of the colony, wrote in his memoir, Feeling the Stones. Had the Iron Lady met her match?
For the British Prime Minister this was a discussion about sovereignty and administration. For the Chinese, there was never any question about the recovery of sovereignty, Mr. Akers-Jones wrote. In 1984 Britain and China signed a treaty declaring all of Hong Kong would be handed back to China in 1997.
Here in Beijing today, in editorials and articles, her turn was noted approvingly by some, while others noted, disturbingly, talk here that it was perhaps one of the few times she behaved like a woman. (Chinas political culture is unfriendly to women and there are few women in positions of power in the Communist Party.)
Thatcher managed to understand that China is not Argentina and Hong Kong is not the Falklands, wrote the Global Times in an editorial, referring to the war over sovereignty she successfully had led to retain the islands in the south Atlantic, claimed by Argentina, shortly before the Hong Kong talks began. She signed the joint declaration, which set the foundation for Hong Kongs return, the newspaper wrote, referring to the treaty that returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty.
We can say that she made her biggest compromise as prime minister in this issue, it continued. Its fair to say this, even though frictions between China and the UK existed until Hong Kongs return in 1997......
..........
The Time the Iron Lady 'Turned' Before China - NYTimes.com
