Chris Patten

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Chris Patten

Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes , CH , PC , ( Chinese  彭定康 ; born May 12, 1944 in Cleveleys , Lancashire ) is a British politician . He is a former European Commissioner and was the last governor of Hong Kong . He has been Chancellor of the University of Oxford since 2003 and Life Peer since 2005 .

Life

After studying at St. Benedict's School, Ealing , and at Balliol College of Oxford University Patten worked since 1966 for the Conservative Party of Great Britain, first in the Research Department .

From 1979 to 1992 he was a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons and held various positions in the Thatcher cabinet , including Minister of Education (1985-1986), Minister for Development (1986-1989) and Secretary of State for the Environment (1989-1990). As Secretary General he helped John Major to an unexpected election victory in 1992 .

In July 1992, Patten was appointed the 28th and last governor of Hong Kong. He held the office until the return of the former crown colony to the People's Republic of China in 1997. Unlike all governors before him, Patten turned down the offered title of nobility because he was unwilling to give up his political career. In 1998 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

He has been Chancellor of Newcastle University since 1999 and was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2003 .

From 1999 to 2004 he was a member of the European Commission responsible for external relations . In this position he was succeeded in November by the Austrian Benita Ferrero-Waldner . After his return to England he was raised to the nobility, namely on January 11, 2005 as a life peer with the title Baron Patten of Barnes , of Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. He thereby became a member of the House of Lords . In 2010, on behalf of the British government, he organized the first visit by a Pope as head of state to the United Kingdom in 476 years at an invitation from the head of the Anglican Church, Elizabeth II.

In April 2011, Patten was appointed chairman of the BBC Trust . He gave up this post in May 2014 for health reasons after a heart operation.

In July 2014, Pope Francis appointed him to chair a newly formed commission to reform the Vatican media.

In May 2020, with a view to the People's Republic of China , which he described as a dictatorship , he warned of the end of Hong Kong's autonomy and its constitutional principle of one country, two systems .

Fonts

  • The Tory Case. Longman, London et al. 1983, ISBN 0-582-29612-9 .
  • East and West. The last Governor of Hong Kong on power, freedom and the future. Macmillan, Longman, London et al. 1998, ISBN 0-333-74787-9 (German: Asia - the end of the future. The last governor of Hong Kong on the economic and political development in the Far East. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1998, ISBN 3-7857 -0947-1 ).
  • Not Quite the Diplomat. Home Truths about World Affairs. Allen Lane, London 2005, ISBN 0-7139-9855-5 .
  • Cousins ​​and Strangers. America, Britain and Europe in a New Century. Times Books, New York NY 2006, ISBN 0-8050-7788-X .
  • First Confession. A sort of memoir . London: Allen Lane, 2017

literature

Web links

Commons : Chris Patten  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ vaticanhistory.de: GB: Ex-EU Commissioner Patton on the papal visit on July 27, 2010, accessed on September 16, 2010
  2. ^ New Chairman and Vice Chairman appointed to the BBC ' . Prime Minister's Office. April 7, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
  3. ↑ From BBC to right hand of Pope: Patten to advise Vatican on media strategy , report in The Guardian of July 9, 2014, accessed July 10, 2014
  4. ↑ Four major Vatican reform construction sites , report by Vatican Radio from July 9, 2014, accessed on July 9, 2014
  5. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Hong Kong's ex-governor Chris Patten warns of Chinese dictatorship - DER SPIEGEL - Politics. Retrieved May 23, 2020 .
predecessor Office successor
David Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn Hong Kong Governor
1992–1997 		Office no longer assigned
personal data
SURNAME Patten, Chris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Patten, Christopher Francis, Baron Patten of Barnes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, Hong Kong Governor and European Commissioner
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveleys , Lancashire