Thatcher 'helped push ties with China' (2)

"Thatcher was very willing to develop relations with China," Feng said. "She had some concerns on settling the Hong Kong question at first, but after she visited China and talked to Deng Xiaoping, she changed her mind to facilitate a historic joint declaration between the two governments," Feng said.

Thatcher visited China four times, the first in 1977 as leader of the opposition.

During her subsequent visit in 1982, the first to China by a serving British prime minister, she met Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and discussed the future of Hong Kong.

Cheung Chi-kong, executive director of the One Country Two Systems Research Institute in Hong Kong, said Margaret Thatcher might have made a wrong judgment from day one — when she decided to negotiate with Beijing.

She had underestimated China's persistence in sovereignty and national dignity, Cheung said.

Beijing was determined to resume sovereignty over Hong Kong, Cheung said.

After two years of negotiations, China and Britain released the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, paving the way for Hong Kong's handover in 1997.