Chris Patten is wrong, Hong Kong will benefit from Brexit. Massively

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The former Hong Kong governor says that without the might of Europe, the UK will lose influence in China, but Hong Kong stands to profit as Britons turn away from the EU and towards their old trading partners eastward

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In a recent article in The Guardian, former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten said that without Europe, no one will take Britain seriously, and consequently Britain will lose influence with China. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Nicolas Groffman

Published: 9:02am, 15 Jan 2018Updated: 9:02am, 15 Jan 2018

About two days after the UK’s referendum in 2016, I was WeChatted by a certain senior figure in the Shanghai Bureau of Commerce. I am not grand enough to be routinely consulted by Shanghai government officials and he was presumably asking the same question of other Britons in the commercial world. What interested me was his question: was the UK open to discussing a free-trade agreement with China?

Why would the Chinese government not go through usual diplomatic channels? Why ask people like me? First, I replied to the official, saying “If it were up to me, then I’d say ‘yes please’. But it isn’t, so I’ll ask the British government.”

How far should Britain go to ensure Joint Declaration promises are kept for Hong Kong?

I think that was what he wanted. I learned later from friends who know more about Chinese political dealings than I do that this approach is not unusual. When government officials talk casually with businesspeople rather than diplomats, they can spread a message without risk.

They know that businesspeople will tell their contacts what the official has said, and yet nothing they say has diplomatic force. Secondly, while a Shanghai government comment seems important, it does not represent the central government.

A protester wears a 'STOP BREXIT' hat outside the Palace of Westminster, London. Photo: Reuters

Anyway, I duly did as expected and spoke excitedly to anyone I could find in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and received the traditional polite brush-off reserved for overenthusiastic amateurs.

Zhu Xin, the Shanghai manager of a large Sino-British business organisation, worked in a previous life on the negotiating team for some of China’s existing free-trade agreements (FTAs). She explains that many within the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs see the UK’s impending departure from the EU as a great opportunity.