Hong Kong Returns to China

Source: 2016: Hong Kong’s Return, 19 Years On
From: Yidu
Date: July 1, 2016

Britain’s colonial rule over Hong Kong began with the First Opium War, when the Qing government — defeated in battle — signed the Treaty of Nanking with Britain on August 29, 1842, ceding Hong Kong Island and Ap Lei Chau to Britain. In October 1860, the Qing government was again defeated in the Second Opium War and was forced to sign the Convention of Peking, handing control of the southern portion of the Kowloon Peninsula (then called “Kowloon City District”) below Boundary Street and Stonecutters Island to Britain. In 1898, the Qing government signed the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory with Britain, leasing to Britain the 975.1 square kilometres of land comprising 230 large and small islands south of the Shenzhen River and north of Boundary Street — designated “the New Territories” — for a 99-year period beginning July 1, 1898, expiring June 30, 1997. In September 1982, the British and PRC governments began negotiations on Hong Kong’s future. Although the Treaty of Nanking and Convention of Peking permanently ceded Hong Kong Island, Ap Lei Chau, southern Kowloon, and Stonecutters Island to Britain, the PRC refused to recognise the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory and all related unequal treaties, acknowledging only that Hong Kong was under British administration — not a British territory — and demanded that Britain return Hong Kong Island and Kowloon along with the New Territories. After more than two years and twenty-two rounds of negotiations, the Sino-British Joint Declaration was formally signed on December 19, 1984, determining that from July 1, 1997, China would establish a Special Administrative Region in Hong Kong and resume the exercise of sovereignty and governance over Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula south of Boundary Street, and the New Territories. The United Kingdom transferred Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China on July 1, 1997.

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External Links

• Who Decided Hong Kong’s Future? A Brief Account of the ’97 Handover (Plain Law)
• The 1997 Handover of Hong Kong as Described by Westerners (China Radio International)
• Memory of 1997: The Hong Kong Handover Ceremony (China.com.cn)