Chris Patten, the former British governor of Hong Kong, has waded into a heated debate about the territory’s relationship with Beijing by accusing China of trying to undermine judicial independence in the global financial centre.

Lord Patten has generally avoided commenting on Hong Kong since he oversaw the handover to China in 1997. But he said he felt compelled to speak out because of a recent Chinese “white paper” that said Hong Kong judges should be “patriotic” – which critics interpret as being loyal to the Communist party.

“Judges under the rule of [Hong Kong] law are independent and there shouldn’t be any question of them being instructed or pressed to subordinate their views of due process and what is legal to some other political considerations,” he told the Financial Times.