East and West: China, Power, and the Future of Asia

Christopher Patten is modest about being the Last Governor ("a title invariably given capital letters to denote," he supposes, "its historic significance") of a British-ruled Hong Kong, and about his role in the transition of the colony to Chinese rule in 1997. The first third of East and West recounts Patten's struggle to leave the colony's residents with some assurances that they would have certain democratic rights once they became Chinese subjects, and he is frankly regretful about the extent to which those efforts failed. The tortuous diplomatic maneuvering of those years and the colorful players are depicted with vigor and humor, and Patten adds lively first-person anecdotes absent from Jonathan Dimbleby's detailed analysis of the handover in The Last Governor.

East and West then moves to a much wider arena. "I believed," Patten writes, "that the values Hong Kong represented were the values of the future in Asia as everywhere else." With common sense and a wealth of statistics, Patten refutes the notion that distinctly Asian values can explain the success of Asia's economic "tigers." The book becomes a well-argued and sometimes passionate exploration of the universal relevance of liberal democracy, human rights, and market economics. Patten is a sharp, well-read statesman, and though he downplays his role as that of a political functionary, one might well wish that higher-ups displayed some of his insight and clarity.