Hong Kong Is Leased to Britain
The topic of "Hong Kong Is Leased to Britain" revolves around the historical events surrounding Hong Kong's transition from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region of China. Originally a sparsely populated area, Hong Kong's significance grew after the British seized Hong Kong Island following the First Opium War in 1841 and later acquired Kowloon in 1860. The New Territories were leased to Britain for 99 years starting in 1898, which encompassed the majority of present-day Hong Kong. As the lease approached its expiration in 1997, concerns arose regarding the future of Hong Kong, especially given the political landscape in China and the contrasting capitalist economy of Hong Kong.
The 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China was negotiated to ensure that the territory could maintain a degree of autonomy under the "one country, two systems" principle for fifty years. Following the transition, Hong Kong thrived economically and strengthened its global financial standing. However, tensions emerged in the following decades as mainland China's political influence increased, leading to protests and legislative changes that many in Hong Kong viewed as threats to their promised autonomy. The introduction of multiple national security laws in the 2020s further intensified these concerns, reflecting the ongoing complexities of Hong Kong's identity and governance within the context of its historical lease and subsequent handover.
Hong Kong Is Leased to Britain
Hong Kong Is Leased to Britain
Hong Kong, a large and prosperous city-state on the coast of southern China, was a British colonial possession until 1997. It is a major trading center and has over seven million inhabitants on just over 400 square miles of land. Hong Kong consists of Hong Kong Island, several hundred lesser islands, the mainland city of Kowloon, and the mainland region of the New Territories. The New Territories were leased by China to Great Britain on June 9, 1898, for a term of 99 years beginning on July 1 of that year. This region comprises over nine-tenths of modern Hong Kong.
The economic potential of Hong Kong was never exploited by the Chinese, whose empire was usually inward-looking and distrustful of foreign powers. All trade in the vicinity was controlled through the port of Guangzhou. However, the British seized Hong Kong Island during the First Opium War (1839–42), in which they had used military force to prevent China from cracking down on the opium trade that was extremely lucrative for British traders but was turning thousands of Chinese into drug addicts. The island was seized in 1841 and formally ceded to Great Britain in 1842 by the Treaty of Nanking. After the Second Opium War, in which the British also prevailed, England received Kowloon in 1860 pursuant to the terms of the Treaty of Tianjin. Because the growing colony needed more land to comfortably accommodate its population, the British negotiated for the lease of the New Territories. There they built many new towns over the years.
The expiration of the lease, which at the time seemed like just a formality and probably a precursor to a total annexation, became a matter of concern in the late 20th century. The terms of the lease were still in force, but China had undergone massive political upheavals which had resulted in the establishment of a communist government in 1949 under leader Mao Zedong. China had also developed nuclear weapons and built a powerful military establishment that could no longer be easily influenced by the British or other Western powers. Capitalist Hong Kong, with its thriving economy, was the antithesis of the values of communist China, so there was concern over what would happen when the lease expired.
However, beginning in the late 1970s, China began to liberalize its economy, permitting various forms of private enterprise and encouraging development. These changes accelerated during the 1980s and 1990s, despite a government crackdown on political dissent in the late 1980s, and China emerged as a major world economic power with a pro-capitalist business community. Therefore, as the Chinese began to embrace capitalism, the British were able to negotiate favorable terms for the peaceful return of not only the New Territories, but all of Hong Kong to China. Effective July 1, 1997, Hong Kong became part of a special administrative region, with an agreement that the territory could operate with considerable economic autonomy independent of the central Chinese government for fifty years. The transfer was completed without any major incidents.
In the decades after the transfer, Hong Kong prospered economically as China's economy grew and strengthened its ties with a number of other countries around the world, including Britain and the United States. By the early 2020s Hong Kong ranked extremely high in terms of economic and human development and was one of the world's biggest financial centers. However, throughout the 2010s, tensions over Hong Kong's status as a special administrative region grew as mainland Chinese authorities sought greater political control and many Hong Kong residents sought to preserve the autonomy promised them before the initial handover.
As political repression in mainland China increased under the leadership of Xi Jinping, who had become president of China in 2013. Despite multiple intense protests, including the "Umbrella Revolution" of 2014 and a series of protests in 2019 and 2020 against a proposed extradition law, a number of reforms passed in Hong Kong during the 2010s and 2020s. For example, in 2020, a new national security law passed in the wake of the anti-extradition protests, and in 2021, a law passed that allowed only candidates approved by the central government in Beijing to claim seats in Hong Kong's Legislative Council. In 2024 another new piece of national security legislation, known as Article 23, was introduced; this law expanded the existing national security law and would give the government and police new powers, including the ability to hold trials behind closed doors and detain suspects without charges for up to sixteen days.
Bibliography
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