Lu Ping
Patten was much blamed by the Chinese authorities for his democratic reform, with the Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Lu Ping, once famously denouncing him as a "sinner to be condemned for thousands of years". In the quarrel between Patten and the Chinese government, Cradock stood firmly against Patten and criticised him on many occasions, blaming him for damaging the planned road-map which had been endorsed by both the British and Chinese governments. In 1995, Cradock publicly said in an interview that "He [referring to Patten] has made himself so obnoxious to the Chinese" and later, on another occasion, he described Patten as the "incredible shrinking Governor". Yet Patten did not remain silent, and struck back in a Legislative Council meeting, publicly ridiculing Cradock as a "dyspeptic retired ambassador". From 1992 to 1997, both Cradock and Patten criticised each other on many occasions, which placed them on increasingly bad terms. Although Cradock was invited by the British government to attend the ceremony of the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong on 30 June 1997, Cradock felt that they would not like him to be there and turned down the invitation.