1998 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
The Atlantic Preference
Published in:
Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century
On 30 June 1997, the eve of the transfer of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, Margaret Thatcher, referring to the decision of the American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, to boycott the Chinese ceremony along with her British counterpart, spoke of Britain and the United States always being there for one another. The BBC interviewer recalled still having on her mantelshelf a gold-embossed invitation from the then British Prime Minister to an ‘at home’ in the Great Hall of the People in Peking, and observed that, of course, Mrs Thatcher had been at home there then.