Percy Cradock

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.

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 Chairman 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

In 1982, he was bestowed an honorary fellowship by St John's College.

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.

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", while Patten mocked him openly, in another occasion, as a "dyspeptic retired ambassador" suffering from "Craddockitis".

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.

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.