The Recovery of Hong Kong } 605
I believe we must take Patten and McLaren at face value: Chinese leaders
judged British motives incorrectly.
Steve Tsang attributed CCP misattribution of sinister motives to Britain to
a combination of ideology and unfamiliarity with Hong Kong’s civil service.^61
The CCP’s ideology taught it that Britain had always plundered Hong Kong.
No additional evidence was required to reach the conclusion that the ambi-
tious Lantao airport plan was merely another move of this kind. CCP lead-
ers were also extrapolating the likely Lantao construction process from how
the PRC bureaucracy might handle it. CCP leaders understood well the PRC
bureaucracy, and extrapolated from it to surmise that a great deal of money
would disappear via corrupt officials. They did not know that Hong Kong’s
open tender process, its strict public oversight (including oversight by LegCo),
and the independence and dedication of its civil service would prevent Hong
Kong’s bureaucracy from acting as the PRC’s bureaucracy might.
The CCP’s perception of Patten’s election democratization as an
instability-producing time bomb similarly arose out of its beliefs about “bour-
geois democracy.” Open and competitive elections and separation of powers
between independent branches of government yield instability and govern-
mental paralysis, according to the CCP’s ideology. Moreover, legitimate gov-
ernment rests not on the consent of the governed but on superior knowledge
and virtue—in this case, understanding of Marxism-Leninism and dedica-
tion to China’s rise to “wealth and power.” Yet while serious misperceptions
marred the calculations of China’s leaders, these misperceptions did not pro-
duce policy failure. The collapse of Anglo-Chinese cooperation and the ab-
sence of a “through train” did not prevent the stable transfer of Hong Kong
to PRC control.
Wiping Out the Stain of National Humiliation and Opium Wars
Several years before the designated time of reversion, July 1, 1997, a huge clock
was set up in Tiananmen Square showing the countdown to Hong Kong’s
reversion.^62 As the designated time came closer, China’s media increasingly
carried articles and editorials celebrating the upcoming event. Their theme
was that the deep stain of China’s national humiliation during the Opium
Wars was being wiped away—thanks to the sagacious leadership of Deng
Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and the CCP—and the Chinese people should cel-
ebrate this. The message resonated with the public. Two days before rever-
sion, a crowd of over a half million gathered in Tiananmen to express their
nationalist pride. Police later cleared the square. On the day before reversion,
a carefully selected group of 100,000 was admitted to the square to observe
patriotic festivities celebrating reversion. At zero hour, the crowd bust sponta-
neously into applause and mutual patriotic congratulations. Only eight years