I was working on Hong Kong in 1997, and I can recall that both Britain and China asked countries like Canada to pledge their ongoing support for the arrangement, ongoing support for the autonomy of Hong Kong institutions. We said we would. Chris Patten thanked Canada, and then we lost the thread. We weren't as supportive.
I'm someone who has been a bit of a critic of our parliamentary exchange with China. I think we could have spent better time focusing on democratic development and the transition of the Hong Kong legislature to something that was truly more representative, but at every pass, I think, again, we were stymied by our concern that somehow this would upset China.
This is a lesson that we have to learn. The end result is that China has essentially consumed Hong Kong. It's another city of south China. The lesson is that it's never too late to push back, but it sure is a lot easier to push back through the process as early as possible.