Experiences of China

As Foreign Policy Adviser to Margaret Thatcher and then John Major from 1984 to 1992, Sir Percy Cradock was at the centre of government for most of the last decade. He was particularly active and influential on China, where he was Charge d'Affaires during the Cultural Revolution and Ambassador from 1978 to 1984. He masterminded the joint Declaration on Hong Kong in 1984 and played a leading role in later negotiations over the colony. In this book he reviews his experiences of China over thirty years, since his first posting there in 1962. It is a chronicle, ranging from the famines after the Great Leap Forward, through the madness of the Cultural Revolution, to the reformist years of Deng Xiaoping, the tragedy of Tiananmen, and finally to present-day China, now with the fastest growing economy in the world. In narrower focus, it is also an authoritative account of Sino-British dealings during that turbulent time, in particular the critical negotiations over Hong Kong. These memoirs offer the inside story, illuminating past crises and present controversies, and making a contribution to the understanding of a coming world power.