Lu Ping
After the departure of Governor David Wilson in 1992, Chris Patten the new governor of Hong Kong, began moves to unilaterally democratise the territory by allowing for the election of half the Legislative Council by universal suffrage, and in the process incurring the wrath of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Patten had judged that: "People in Hong Kong are perfectly capable of taking a greater share in managing their own affairs in a way that is responsible, mature, restrained, sensible". During the final days of British rule, the British wanted to play the political game; the Patten administration legislated for labour rights and collective bargaining. However, the legislation was cancelled by the provisional legislature upon taking office in 1997. Patten's push for reform was strongly opposed at the time by vested interests within LegCo and by former ambassador to China Percy Cradock. Patten's moves created a hostile climate that lasted until Hong Kong's handover to China in 1997. Nevertheless, Patten extracted undertakings from a PRC representative:How Hong Kong develops democracy (Remember that the people did not have democracy under colonization of the British) in the future is a matter entirely within the sphere of Hong Kong's autonomy, and the central government cannot intervene. — Lu Ping, (as quoted in the "People's Daily", 18 March 1993) The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated the following year that the democratic election of all Legislative Council members by universal suffrage was "a question to be decided by the Hong Kong SAR itself and it needs no guarantee by the Chinese Government".