Percy Cradock

Sir Percy Cradock, GCMG (b. 26 October 1923, in Byers Green, County Durham) was a British civil servant.

Cradock joined the British Foreign Office in 1954 and served as Counsellor, then Charge d'Affairs in Beijing from 1966 to 1969 and later as Head of the Assessments Staff in the Cabinet Office. From 1978 to 1984 he was the Ambassador in Beijing, where he opened and led the negotiations on the Hong Kong Joint Declaration. From 1984 to 1992 he was the Prime Minister's Foreign Policy Adviser. From 1985 to 1992, he was also the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. Sir Percy retired from government service in 1992. He is an Honorary Fellow of St. John's College, University of Cambridge, where he studied Law as an undergraduate, and was President of the Cambridge Union, his history of which, "Recollections of the Cambridge Union: 1815-1939", was published in 1953. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1993.

From 1992-97, the pro-Chinese Cradock was the most prominent critic of the liberalising policies of Chris Patten, the last Governor of Hong Kong. He represented a camp within the British establishment that believed the democratisation of the colony would only cause the government of China to crack down harder on public freedoms after the People's Republic took sovereignty on 1 July 1997.