Chris Patten, once labelled “a sinner condemned for thousands of generations”, by the Chinese authorities, is in reflective mood about Beijing’s handling of Hong Kong affairs.

In an interview with the Financial Times on the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover, the territory’s last governor, a former EU commissioner of external affairs and now chancellor of Oxford University, says: “I always thought that Hong Kong was so valuable to China it would be very careful not to damage it and bring the ceiling crushing down.”