Hong Kong

Abstract

HISTORY. Hong Kong Island and the southern tip of the Kowloon peninsula were ceded by China to Britain after the first and second Anglo-Chinese Wars by the Treaty of Nanking 1842 and the Convention of Peking 1860. Northern Kowloon was leased to Britain for 99 years by China in 1898. Since then, Hong Kong has been under British administration, except from Dec. 1941 to Aug. 1945 during the Japanese occupation. Talks began in Sept. 1982 between Britain and China over the future of Hong Kong after the lease expiry in 1997. On 19 Dec. 1984, the two countries signed a joint declaration whereby China would recover sovereignty over Hong Kong (comprising Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories) from 1 July 1997 and establish it as a Special Administrative Region where the existing social and economic systems, and the present life-style, would remain unchanged for another 50 years. This ‘one country, two systems’ principle was embodied in the Basic Law of 1990, and allows Hong Kong after 1997 to keep control of its external economic relations, to remain a separate customs area and retain the status of an international financial centre, with foreign exchange markets and a convertible currency. Hong Kong will also retain a legislature and judiciary.