Sir Percy Cradock (, 26 October 1923 – 22 January 2010) was a British diplomat, civil servant and sinologist who served as British Ambassador to the People's Republic of China from 1978 to 1983, playing a significant role in the Sino-British negotiations which led up to the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984.
Joining the Foreign Office in 1954, Cradock served primarily in Asia and was posted to the British Chargé d'affaires Office in Peking (now referred to in English as Beijing) at the outset of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. He, along with other British subjects, was manhandled by the Red Guards and the mobs when the office was set on fire on 22 August 1967. After the rioting, Cradock served as Chargé d'affaires in Peking from 1968 to 1969, and later succeeded Sir Edward Youde as British Ambassador to the People's Republic of China in 1978. His ambassadorship witnessed the start of the Sino-British negotiations in 1982, which subsequently resulted in the Joint Declaration in 1984, an agreement deciding the future of the sovereignty of Hong Kong after 1997. However, the decision of Cradock, who was the British chief negotiator in the negotiations, to compromise with the Chinese authorities, was regarded as a major retreat by the general media in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, and was heavily criticised at that time as betraying the people of Hong Kong.
Cradock remained a trusted advisor to the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who appointed him as Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in 1985. After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he was the first senior British official to pay a visit to the Chinese leadership in the hope of maintaining the much criticised Joint Declaration. He was successful in fighting to guarantee, in the Basic Law of Hong Kong, that half of the seats of the Legislative Council would be directly elected by 2007. However, Cradock worsened his relationship with Thatcher's successor, John Major, by forcing him to visit China in 1991 after the row between the two countries over the Airport Core Programme of Hong Kong. Major had enough of the compromising attitude of Cradock and the-then Governor of Hong Kong, Sir David Wilson, and finally decided to have both of them replaced in 1992, choosing instead his Conservative-ally Chris Patten as Governor.
Unlike his predecessors, Patten was strongly criticised by the Chinese authorities during his governorship because he introduced a series of democratic reforms without consulting them. Although Cradock had retired, he joined the pro-Beijing camp, and became one of the most prominent critics of Governor Patten, censuring him for wrecking the hand-over agreement that had been agreed with the Chinese government. Cradock and Patten blamed each other publicly a number of times in the final years of British administration of Hong Kong. He once famously denounced Patten as an "incredible shrinking Governor",Hong Kong's Governor Opens New Legislature : Asia: China says it will disband the first fully elected, all-Chinese 'historic council' in 1997., Los Angeles Times, 12 October 1995 while Patten mocked him openly, in another occasion, as a "dyspeptic retired ambassador" suffering from "Craddockitis".Official Record of Proceedings, Hong Kong Legislative Council, 13 July 1995.
Cradock spent his later years in writing a number of books on realpolitik diplomacy and was a non-executive director of the South China Morning Post.
Early life and education Percy Cradock was born on 26 October 1923 in Byers Green, County Durham, to a farming family. He was educated at Alderman Wraith Grammar School in Spennymoor in his childhood when he experienced the decline of the local mining industry, influencing him to become a devoted supporter of Labour for a long time. He was enlisted in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, and after that, entered St John's College, Cambridge, being the first ever Cradock to enter university in his family history.
Cradock studied law and English language at Cambridge. His outstanding performance secured him a number of scholarships. From Cambridge he also developed his interest in sinology, by appreciating the works of Chinese and Japanese literature translated by Arthur Waley.
In 1950, he defeated his pro-Conservative opponent, Norman St John-Stevas, to become President of the Cambridge Union Society. He subsequently authored a well-received book of the history of the Society in 1953, covering the period from 1815 to 1939. After obtaining the Master of Arts degree, he remained as a law tutor in his alma mater and further obtained an LL.M. In 1953, he was admitted to the bar by the Middle Temple. In 1982, he was bestowed an honorary fellowship by St John's College.Who's Who, London: A & C Black, 2008.
Diplomatic career
Arson attacks on the British Chargé d'affaires Office
In 1954, Cradock gave up his academic career in Cambridge and joined the Foreign Office as a late entrant. He served in the London headquarters from 1954 to 1957, and was then posted to the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya (now Malaysia), as First Secretary from 1957 to 1961. He was sent to Hong Kong in 1961 to learn Mandarin, and in the next year became Chinese Secretary of the British Chargé d'affaires Office in Peking, the People's Republic of China. From 1963 to 1966, he was posted back to London, but was sent to Peking for the second time in 1966, serving as political counsellor and officer-in-charge.
Although the political situation in China by then was growing increasingly unstable, Cradock and his colleagues managed to maintain the safety of the office at the onset of the Cultural Revolution.唐英，〈英前官員憶文革噩夢：火燒英國代辦處〉，《大紀元時報》，2006年8月26日。 Nevertheless, the situation soon became much worse in 1967, when leftist rioting in mainland China spread to Hong Kong, causing the colonial government to adopt tough measures to suppress a series of leftist demonstrations and strikes. The suppression was generally supported by the local residents of Hong Kong, but anti-British sentiment in mainland China was greatly aroused. Many in Peking were enraged by what they regarded as the "imperialist presence" in China and viewed the British Chargé d'affaires Office as a target to express their anger.
On 22 August 1967, a large group of Red Guards and their followers marched to the Chargé d'affaires Office and surrounded the office building, summoning a "Conference to Condemn the Anti-Chinese Crime Committed by British Imperialists". At night, the Red Guards and the mobs rushed into the office, setting fire to the building and the cars outside. The fire forced the Chargé d'affaires, Sir Donald Hopson, and Cradock to lead the staff and their family members to quickly evacuate the building, and to "surrender" to the mobs. It was reported that Cradock was ordered by the Red Guards to kow-tow to a portrait of Mao Zedong, an act that he firmly refused. During the chaotic scene, Cradock and other British subjects were manhandled, and some of them, both male and female, were sexually harassed before being rescued by the People's Liberation Army. After the rescue, Cradock, Hopson and other British subjects were put under house arrest in the embassy zone in central Peking for months, until the political situation cooled down at the end of 1967.
For his services during and after the chaos, Cradock was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1968, and succeeded Hopson as Chargé d'affaires from August 1968 before returning to London in February 1969. Back in London, Cradock became head of the Planning Staff of the Foreign Office from 1969 to 1971, and then an Under-Secretary and head of the Assessments Staff of the Cabinet Office, serving under two Prime Ministers, first, Sir Edward Heath, and secondly, Harold Wilson. Cradock took up his first ambassadorial post from 1976 to 1978 as British Ambassador to East Germany. He also led the British delegation to the Comprehensive Test Ban Discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1977 to 1978.
Sino-British negotiations In 1978, Cradock was posted to Peking for the third time to succeed Sir Edward Youde as British Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, a post created in 1972 to supersede the position of Chargé d'affaires."Sir Percy Cradock", Telegraph, 28 January 2010.
By then, senior officials in the Hong Kong Government, as well as several land developers in Hong Kong, became aware of the question of the 1997 expiry of the 99-year land lease by China to Britain of the New Territories, contained within the 1898 Sino-British Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, feeling increasingly uncertain about the future validity of land leases. The colony of Hong Kong was basically made up of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon which were ceded to Britain respectively in 1842 and 1860, and the New Territories, which unlike the first two regions was only leased to the United Kingdom for a 99-year term beginning from 1898. Since the 99-year lease would expire roughly twenty-five years after in 1997, they began to notice that land leases in the New Territories approved by the colonial government might not subsist beyond 1997.
To test the attitude of the Chinese government to the validity of the leases, the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, accompanied by the Senior Unofficial Member of the Executive Council, Sir Yuet-keung Kan, and the Political Advisor to the Governor, (later Sir) David Wilson, accepted an invitation from the Chinese government to visit Peking in 1979. The purpose of the visit appeared highly sensitive to the British government. In Hong Kong, only MacLehose, Kan and Wilson knew the purpose of their mission, which was facilitated by Youde in London and Cradock in Peking, and was endorsed by the Foreign Secretary, Dr David Owen.Tsang, Steve, A Modern History of Hong Kong, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009, p.212. However, unexpectedly, the leader of Communist China, Deng Xiaoping, simply disregarded the question of land leases and firmly insisted on taking over the whole of Hong Kong on or before 1997. The visit ended in dramatically unveiling the prelude of the Sino-British negotiations over the future of Hong Kong.Tsang, Steve, A Modern History of Hong Kong, p.212.
Following the victory of the Conservatives in the UK General Election in 1979, the new Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, adopted a tough line in diplomacy, and the question of Hong Kong was no exception. Not long after the military victory of the United Kingdom over Argentina in the Falklands War, Mrs. Thatcher, accompanied by Cradock and Youde, who was now Governor of Hong Kong, paid a visit to Peking on 22 September 1982 in the hope of persuading the Chinese government not to insist on claiming sovereignty over Hong Kong. During her visit, Thatcher and Cradock discussed the matter with the Chinese leadership, including Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and Deng Xiao-ping. Although both sides agreed that a formal negotiation over the future of Hong Kong should be held without delay, their views further clashed on 24 September when Thatcher emphasised in a meeting with Deng in the Great Hall of the People that the Sino-British Treaty of Nanking, Convention of Peking and the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory were still valid, a fact that was firmly denied by Deng, who instead insisted that China must take over Hong Kong by 1997 regardless of the treaties.Tsang, Steve, A Modern History of Hong Kong, p.218 When Thatcher, Cradock and Youde left the Great Hall after their meeting with Deng, Thatcher accidentally slipped on the steps outside. The sensational scene was described by the local media as a sign hinting at the defeat of the "Iron Lady" by the "shortie" (i.e. Deng).《一九八二年大事回顧》，香港：無綫電視，1982年。