SIAF event with Chris Patten

China and how its economic rise affected the new world order. Within a few decades, China has managed to rise from a poor developing country to a leading world power. It achieved this not through “a great leap forward,” but rather via an arduous path of economic renewal that demanded significant sacrifices. Politically self-confident, the Chinese Communist Party under the iron grip of Xi Jinping today purports to offer a systemic alternative to the “Pax Americana”. Should the West be afraid? About Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH, PC Last Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten (Baron Patten of Barnes) was a British politician, Chairman of the Conservative Party and Secretary of State for the Environment. He was the last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. He chaired the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland after the Good Friday Agreement and was the Commissioner for External Relations for the European Union from 1999 to 2004. Since 2003 he has been the elected Chancellor of Oxford University.