Speaking to journalists yesterday in Beijing, former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten attacked the "hapless, witless unilateralism" of the Bush administration and said he hopes to see Barack Obama elected US president.

Speaking to journalists yesterday in Beijing, former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten attacked the "hapless, witless unilateralism" of the Bush administration and said he hopes to see Barack Obama elected US president.

Admitting that he is an "Obamacon", the former UK Conservative party chairman, said Obama can rebuild America's moral authority, which has been tarnished by Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and water-boarding. He added that whatever the result next Tuesday, he is pleased George Bush and Dick Cheney are leaving the stage.

He said that as the economic crisis deepens, the issue of social equity is going to matter more and more. Ordinary people will not tighten their belts if the gap between them and the super rich continues to grow. If Obama grasps this, said Patten, he can be a “transformational president”. He added that the election of a black president will show the world what America, at its best, is all about.

Climate change

Lord Patten said the world is facing "an existential threat" from global warming, but reaching agreement on concerted international action would require "more diplomatic skill than the Versailles, Yalta and Potsdam treaties combined". Pointing out that 250m of the world's 520m cars are in the USA, Patten said an agreement would threaten the American way of life, but added it would also challenge the Chinese government's development goals.

Financial crisis

On the world financial crisis, Patten said he had not expected the meltdown to be as dramatic as it turned out. He added that he is not sure what sort of capitalism we are supposed to believe in now, but hinted that greater state intervention in the economy will become the norm. He said it would be a long time before anyone repeats Ronald Reagan's joke that the scariest 9 words in the English language are "I'm from the government, I'm here to help you".

Real wages in the USA had been static for 30 years and Americans had resorted to borrowing to improve their living standards. But the implicit deal that Americans would buy everything the world made so long as it lent them the money to do so, could not go on forever, Patten said, "and what can't go on forever, usually doesn't."

New world order

Asked whether China can save the world economy, Patten said China would be more willing to sign checks if the global financial architecture was reformed. "If I were a Chinese minister I would be far more amenable to contributing if I had more of a say in the IMF and other Bretton Woods institutions." He said the Bretton Woods agreement reflected the balance of economic power at the end of the second world war and urgently needed to be revised to reflect the growing importance of China, India and Brazil.

He added that many people forget that in 1850 China and India accounted for 50 percent of global GDP. For 18 out of the past 20 centuries China had been the world's largest economy, and it will be so again.

Tibet is part of China

Lord Patten welcomed the 29th October statement by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, changing British government policy on Tibet.

He said it had been little known technicality and "a quaint eccentricity" that Britain had previously recognized Chinese suzerainty, but not sovereignty, over Tibet. The Foreign Secretary's statement had made it clear that Britain recognizes that Tibet is part of China. "I commend Mr Miliband for bringing Britain into line with the rest of humanity," said Patten, noting that not even the Dalai Lama had shared Britain's previous position.

(China.org.cn by John Sexton, November 2, 2008)