Patten urges Beijing not to see Hong Kongers as dissidents

Chris Patten delivers a speech at the luncheon of the Hong Kong Democratic Foundation in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s last British governor urged Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday not to treat the city’s residents like dissidents.

Chris Patten’s comments came amid flaring tensions over calls for independence on the semiautonomous region’s college campuses.

Patten was Britain’s top official in Hong Kong until Beijing took control of the colony on July 1, 1997.

In a speech during a visit to the city, Patten said he hopes Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, who took office earlier this year, will advise Xi to refrain from taking a hard-line approach.

“I hope that she makes it clear to Beijing that talking about democracy in Hong Kong is not an act of subversion,” he said.

Hong Kong allows civil liberties unseen on mainland China, including freedom of speech. But calls for democracy by young activists in recent years have alarmed Beijing, and the city’s Beijing-backed government has clamped down on calls for independence.

Some activists began openly advocating the once-unthinkable idea of independence from mainland China after massive pro-democracy protests ended without resolution in 2014.

The day before, Patten said that calls for the city’s independence from China dilute support for democracy, and residents should engage in dialogue and not hate speech.

He was speaking at a luncheon at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong. MDT/AP