A prince, his diary and a Chinese 'takeaway'

Prince Charles

To the Beijing Government it was "the return of Hong Kong to the Motherland". For the heir to the British throne, in one of his more candid moments, it was "the Great Chinese Takeaway".

The transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China on a sultry night in 1997 represented the surrender of the last meaningful vestige of Britain's faded colonial power. And Prince Charles made clear his discomfort at the passing of British rule, established in 1841 during the Opium Wars, no matter how much pomp and circumstance accompanied it.

After a tortuous political process begun in 1979, Britain ceded control at one minute past midnight on 1 July 1997.

The ceremony at the cavernous Hong Kong Convention Centre saw the Union Flag and that of the colony being replaced with those of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Area and the People's Republic of China.

Charles flew out to the Far East with assorted dignitaries to witness the handover, alongside Chris Patten, Britain's last governor of Hong Kong.

But it was not until the return flight that the prince took the opportunity to write a 3000-word account of the event, entitled The Handover of Hong Kong or The Great Chinese Takeaway and peppered with indiscreet views from start to finish.

Of the outward journey, he said his BA747 took off with a large party of representatives from Britain and he found himself and his staff "on the top deck in what is normally club class".

"It took me some time to realise that this was not first class (!) although it puzzled me as to why the seat seemed so uncomfortable."

He said he then discovered that other dignitaries, including "the new Foreign Secretary Robin Cook", several former Governors of Hong Kong, and the then leader of the Liberal Democrats were all "ensconced in First Class immediately below us".

He wrote: "Such is the end of Empire, I sighed to myself."

His journal describes how he landed in a hot and humid Hong Kong and was "delivered" to the Royal Yacht Britannia, tied up near the Prince of Wales building "I must have named in the 1980s".

Following in brackets is "Goodness only knows what the Chinese would have renamed it by now".

He said it was wonderful to be aboard Britannia but this was "tinged with an overwhelming sadness" as this was to be the last time on an overseas visit because the yacht was being "ex-commissioned".

He said there was "a kind of exasperated sadness experienced by all and sundry" about the decision.

"Why is this happening?" he quoted Madeleine Albright, the then US Defence Secretary, as asking.

"The PM and Mrs Blair came on board for an hour and seemed suitably impressed after the whistle-stop tour around the ship.

"But they are all in such a hurry, so never really learn about anything."

He said the Prime Minister spent just 14 hours in Hong Kong.

He referred to Blair as a politician who takes decisions "based on market research and focus groups, on the papers produced by political advisers and civil servants - none of whom will have ever experienced what it is they are taking decisions about."

He said that at another reception aboard Britannia everyone he spoke to was being "thoroughly optimistic" about the future for Hong Kong.

"But in the background was the sneaking worry about creeping corruption and the gradual undermining of Hong Kong's greatest asset - the rule of law."

He said the Chinese Army was another concern because they were paid so badly that there may be "irresistible temptations to intimidate local people when [they] discover a glass of beer costs ... their weekly salary".

He said the Chinese Army was known to carry out corrupt practices and "one can only hope they are confined to barracks in Hong Kong".

At another dinner aboard the yacht, he said Albright was "good value - seemed to be well disposed towards the United Kingdom.

"We had a good talk about Islam and about the unhelpful US attitude to global warming at the New York summit earlier in the month."

Of Blair, he said: "He is most enjoyable to talk to - perhaps partly due to his being younger than me.

"He also gives the impression of listening to what one says, which I find astonishing. He understands only too well the identity problem that Britain has with the loss of an empire and the inability to know what to do next.

"Introspection, cynicism and criticism seem to have become the order of the day and clearly he recognises the need to find ways of overcoming the apathy and loss of self-belief by finding a fresh national direction."

He referred to an "incredibly sad" and "moving speech" by Patten.

"I ended up with a lump in my throat and was then completely finished off by the playing of Elgar's Nimrod Variations afterwards."

The Prince returned to the Royal Yacht for a bath after the speech and then attended an enormous banquet for 4000 at the Convention Centre.

"I sat next to the Chinese Foreign Minister, who must have had difficulty knowing what to make of me.

"After a lot of toasting we left the dinner and just waited around until we could go through the ridiculous rigmarole of meeting the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, without loss of face to either side."

Jiang read a prepared statement at the meeting, to which Charles said he had "no escape from reply so I desperately tried to think what I could say without causing incident".

"After my speech," Charles said, "the President detached himself from the group of appalling old waxworks who accompanied him and took his place at the lectern.

"He then gave a kind of propaganda speech, which was loudly cheered by the bussed-in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text.

"At the end of this awful Soviet-style display we had to watch the Chinese soldiers goose-step on to the stage and haul down the Union Jack and raise the Chinese flag."

The "ultimate horror" was the artificial way in which the flags were made to flutter enticingly.

"The ceremony ended with us all being photographed in a group, shaking hands and marching off through different doors. Thus we left Hong Kong to her fate and the hope that Martin Lee, the leader of the Democrats, would not be arrested ... "

His journal described Hong Kong as a "remarkable example of colonialism".

Later, on Britannia, Charles "stood on the deck gazing at the departing skyline of Hong Kong and telling myself perhaps it is good for the soul to have to say goodbye and (to) the dear yacht in the same year. Perhaps ... "

The Prince said the handover was part of the biggest Royal Navy deployment in the Far East for several years.

They had been harassed by the Chinese Navy and overflown by Flanker aircraft in the South China Sea. Britannia was even followed by a Chinese patrol craft.

"The whole business was drearily reminiscent of the Soviets and their behaviour when I was in the Royal Navy over 20 years previously.

"I only hope the British can maintain her presence in the area ... I believe we should be exploring every possible way of exploiting our military skills. It would be an utter tragedy to squander over 300 years of accumulated expertise."

- INDEPENDENT