Handover of Hong Kong
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The transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) occurred on June 30, 1997.
In 1982, the two governments began to talk about the sovereignty of Hong Kong. In light of the increasing openness of the PRC government and economic reforms on the mainland, then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sought the PRC's agreement to a continued British presence in the territory. However, the PRC took a contrary position: not only did the PRC wish for the New Territories, on lease until 1997, to be placed under the PRC's jurisdiction, it also refused to recognise the "unfair and unequal treaties" under which Hong Kong Island and Kowloon had been ceded to Britain in perpetuity. Consequently, the PRC recognised only the British administration in Hong Kong, but not British sovereignty.
Background
In March 1979, the Governor of Hong Kong Murray MacLehose paid his first official visit to the PRC, taking the initiative to raise the question of Hong Kong's sovereignty with Deng Xiaoping. Without clarifying and establishing the official position of the PRC government, the arranging of real estate leases and loans agreements in Hong Kong within the next 18 years would be rather difficult. In fact, as early as the mid 1970s, Hong Kong had faced additional risks raising loans for large scale infra-structure projects such as its MTR system and a new airport. Caught unprepared, Deng asserted the necessity of Hong Kong's return to China, upon which Hong Kong would be given special status by the PRC government.
Many argue that had it not been for MacLehose's rashness, the PRC government might not have pressed to put the Hong Kong question on its agenda. Debate aside, MacLehose's visit to the PRC did raise the curtain on the issue of Hong Kong's sovereignty: Britain was made very much aware of the PRC's intention - their aspiration to resume sovereignty over Hong Kong as the Qing Dynasty's successor - and began to make arrangements accordingly to ensure the sustenance of its interests within the territory, as well as initiating the creation of a withdrawal plan in case of emergency.
Three years later, Deng received the former British Prime Minister Edward Heath. Heath had been dispatched as the special envoy of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to establish an understanding of the PRC's view with regards to the Hong Kong question. Throughout their meeting, Deng stated clearly for the first time the PRC's willingness to settle the Hong Kong issue with Britain through formal negotiations. In the same year, Edward Youde, who succeeded MacLehose as the 26th Governor of Hong Kong, led a delegation of five Executive Councillors to London, including Chung Sze Yuen, Lydia Dunn, and Roger Lobo. Chung presented their position on the sovereignty of Hong Kong to Thatcher, encouraging her to take into consideration the interests of the native Hong Kong population in her upcoming visit to China.
The talks
| Major events during 1979 - 1997 | |
| 24 March 1979 | Hong Kong Governor Sir Murray MacLehose was invited to a visit to Guangzhou and Beijing to find out the attitude of the Chinese government on the Hong Kong issue. |
| 29 March 1979 | Sir Murray MacLehose met the then vice Premier Deng Xiaoping and raised the issue of Hong Kong for the first time. Deng remarked that the investors could set their minds at peace. |
| 4 April 1979 | The Kowloon-Canton through-train routes were restored after 30 years of non-service. |
| 3 May 1979 | The Conservative Party won the U.K. Election. |
| 29 October 1979 | Premier Hua Guofeng visited Britain and had a meeting with Margaret Thatcher. Both of them expressed their concern to maintain the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. |
| 12 May 1980 | Tabled by the Conservative Party in the British government, a new status "British Dependent Territories Citizens" was introduced. This status proposal was widely opposed by Hong Kong people. |
| 3 April 1981 | Lord Carrington met Deng Xiaoping in his visit to Beijing. |
| 30 September 1981 | Chairman of the NPC Ye Jianying issued nine guiding principles concerning a peaceful reunification of Taiwan and mainland China. |
| 30 October 1981 | The House of Commons passed the new British Nationality Act. |
| Nov 1981 | The Beijing government invited some Hong Kongers to help organizing a united front in the handling of the Hong Kong issue. |
| 6 January 1982 | Chinese Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang received Humphrey Atkins. Zhao insisted that the PRC would uphold her sovereignty over Hong Kong. |
| 10 March 1982 | Vice Premier Gu Mu received Sir John Bremridge, promising to maintain Hong Kong's stability and prosperity. |
| 6 April 1982 | Deng Xiaoping revealed his wish to have official contact with the British government. |
| 8 May 1982 | Sir Edward Youde arrived as the 26th Governor of Hong Kong. |
| May 1982 | Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang collected advice from Hong Kong notables such as Lee Ka-shing and Ann tse-kei. |
| 15 June 1982 | Deng Ziaoping officially announced the position of the Chinese government in the context of the Hong Kong 97 Issue, marking the first public statement on part of the PRC with regards to the issue. |
Before the war of words
In the wake of Governor MacLehose's visit, Britain and the PRC established initial diplomatic contact for further discussions of the Hong Kong question, paving the way for Thatcher’s first visit to the PRC in September 1982. Margaret Thatcher, engaged in discussion with Deng Xiaoping, reiterating the validity for an extension of the lease of Hong Kong territory, particularly in light of binding treaties, including the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, the Convention of Peking in 1856, and the clause signed in 1890. In response, Deng Xiaoping cited clearly the lack of room for compromise on the question of sovereignty over Hong Kong; the PRC, as the successor of Qing and the ROC, would recover the entirety of the New Territories, Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.
After her visit with Deng in Beijing, Thatcher was received in Hong Kong as the first British Prime Minister to set foot on the territory while in office. At a press conference, Thatcher re-emphasised the validity of the three treaties, asserting the need for countries to respect treaties on universal terms: "treaties ought always to be respected; without such respect, without such necessary trust, it was impossible for any negotiations to take place".
At the same time, on the Fifth Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress, the constitution was amended to include a new clause which stated that the country might establish a special administrative region (SAR) when necessary. The additional clause would hold tremendous significance in settling the question of Hong Kong and later Macau, putting into social consciousness the concept of "One country, two systems".
Negotiations began
A few months after Thatcher's visit to Beijing, the PRC government had still yet to open negotiations with the British government regarding the sovereignty of Hong Kong. Unsure of what to do, Thatcher consulted former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, though consultation proved fruitless in the end. Shortly before the initiation of sovereignty talks, Governor Youde declared his intention to represent the population of Hong Kong at the negotiations. This statement sparked a strong response from the PRC, which slammed Britain for “making a three-legged stool” and “playing public-opinion cards” as bargaining chips. At the preliminary stage of the talks, the British government refused to budge, insisting on an exchange of sovereignty for administration and the implementation of a British administration post-handover. The PRC government refused, contending that the notions of sovereignty and administration were inseparable, and although it recognised Macau as a "Chinese territory under Portuguese administration", it also sought the return of that territory.
The conflict arising at this point of the negotiations, ended the possibility of further negotiation. During the reception of former British Prime Minister Edward Heath during his sixth visit to the PRC, Deng Xiaoping commented quite clearly on the impossibility of exchanging sovereignty for administration, declaring an ultimatum: the British government must modify or give up its position or the PRC will announce its resolution of the issue of Hong Kong sovereignty unilaterally.
In 1983, Typhoon Ellen ravaged Hong Kong, causing great amounts of damage to both life and property. But what perplexed the people of Hong Kong most were the uncertainties of the territory's future. Hong Kong people were used to adjectives such as "useful" and "constructive" after each round of talks. The Hong Kong dollar plummeted; the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong John Bremridge publicly associated the economic uncertainty with the instability of the political climate. In response, the PRC government condemned Britain through the press for "playing the economic cards" in order to achieve their ends: to intimidate the PRC into conceding to British demands.
British concession
Governor Youde alongside nine members of the Executive Council travelled to London to discuss with then Prime Minister Thatcher the crisis of confidence - the problem with morale among the people of Hong Kong arising from the ruination of the Sino-British talks. The session concluded with Thatcher's writing of a letter addressed to the PRC Premier Zhao Ziyang; in it, she expressed Britain’s willingness to explore arrangements optimizing the future prospects of Hong Kong while utilising the PRC’s proposals as a foundation. Furthermore, and perhaps most significantly, she expressed Britain's concession on its position of a continued British presence in the form of an administration post-handover.
Two rounds of negotiations were held in October and November. On the sixth round of talks in November, Britain formally conceded its intentions of either maintaining a British administration in Hong Kong or seeking some form of co-administration with the PRC, and showed its sincerity in discussing PRC's proposal on the 1997 issue. Obstacles were cleared.
Jardine Matheson & Co. was one of the oldest and most influential British trading companies in Hong Kong. Simon Keswick, chairman of the company, said that they were not pulling out of Hong Kong, but only setting up a new holding company in Bermuda. He also remarked that it was not desirable to "put all one’s eggs in one basket." The PRC took this as yet another plot by Britain. The Hong Kong government explained that it had been informed about the move only a few days before the announcement. The government could not and would not stop the company from making a business decision.
Just as the atmosphere of the talks was becoming cordial, members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council felt impatient at the long-running secrecy over the progress of Sino-British talks on the Hong Kong issue. They held that the people of Hong Kong should have the right to know what was being discussed and to speak at the talks. A motion, tabled by a legislator Roger Lobo, and declaring, “This Council deems it essential that any proposals for the future of Hong Kong should be debated in this Council before agreement is reached”, was passed unanimously. The PRC attacked the motion furiously, referring to it as "somebody’s attempt to play the three-legged stool trick again". At length, the PRC and Britain initialled the Joint Declaration on the question of Hong Kong’s future in Beijing. Zhou Nan, the then PRC Deputy Foreign Minister and leader of the negotiation team, and Sir Richard Evans, British Ambassador to Beijing and leader of the team, signed respectively on behalf of the two governments.
Migration tide
After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the Executive Councillors and the Legislative Councillors unexpectedly held an urgent meeting, requesting the British Government to give the right of abode to the people of Hong Kong. More than 10,000 Hong Kong residents rushed to Central in order to get an application form for residency in Singapore and the United Kingdom. On the eve of the deadline, over 100,000 lined up overnight for a BN(O) application form.
Many Hongkongers were pessimistic towards the future of Hong Kong and the transfer of the region's sovereignty. A tide of emigration, which was to last for no less than five years, broke out. At its peak, citizenships of such small countries as Cape Verde, Tonga, Gambia and Ecuador were also in great demand. Many consuls were deported for their corrupt behaviour in granting immigration visas.
Canada, Australia, and the United States were, by and large, the most popular destinations. The United Kingdom devised the British Nationality Selection Scheme, granting 50,000 families British citizenship under the British Nationality Act (Hong Kong) 1990. Vancouver was among the most popular destinations, that Richmond (a suburb of Vancouver) earned the nickname of "Little Hong Kong" and "New Chinatown", and for the city itself, HongCouver. Other popular settlements are found in Toronto, Sydney, Auckland and Singapore. All in all, from the start of the settlement of the negotiation in 1984 to 1997, nearly 1 million people have emigrated, consequently Hong Kong suffered serious loss of capital and talents. The tide lasted until 1996 when Canada and Australia faced economic downturns. The tide has turned: some of these emigrants have moved back to Hong Kong after securing their foreign citizenship.
Sino-British Joint Declaration
The Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed by the Prime Ministers of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the United Kingdom (UK) governments on December 19, 1984 in Beijing. The Declaration entered into force with the exchange of instruments of ratification on May 27, 1985 and was registered by the PRC and UK governments at the United Nations on June 12, 1985. In the Joint Declaration, the PRC Government stated that it had decided to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong (including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories) with effect from July 1, 1997, and the UK Government declared that it would restore Hong Kong to the PRC with effect from July 1, 1997. In the document the PRC Government also declared its basic policies regarding Hong Kong.
In accordance with the "One Country, Two Systems" principle agreed between the UK and the PRC, the socialist system of PRC would not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and Hong Kong's previous capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years. The Joint Declaration provides that these basic policies shall be stipulated in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The ceremony of the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration took place at 18:00, 19 December, 1984 at the Western Main Chamber of the Great Hall of the People. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office at first proposed a list of 60-80 Hong Kong people to attend the ceremony. The number was finally extended to 101. The list included Hong Kong government officials, members of the Legislative and Executive Councils, chairmen of the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong celebrities such as Li Ka-shing, Pao Yue-kong and Fok Ying-tung, and also Martin Lee Chu-ming and Szeto Wah who are now often condemned by the PRC government.
Views of the Kowloon Walled City
The Walled City was originally a single fort built in the mid-1800s on the site of an earlier 17th century watch post on the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong. After the ceding of Hong Kong Island to Britain in 1842 (Treaty of Nanjing), Qing (Chinese) authorities felt it necessary for them to establish a military-cum-administrative post to rule the area and to check further British influence in the area.
The 1898 Convention which handed additional parts of Hong Kong (the New Territories) to Britain for 99 years excluded the Walled City, with a population of roughly 700. It stated that China could continue to keep troops there, so long as they did not interfere with Britain's temporary rule. Britain quickly went back on this unofficial part of the agreement, attacking Kowloon Walled City in 1899, only to find it deserted. They did nothing with it, or with the outpost, and thus put the question of Kowloon Walled City's ownership squarely up in the air. The outpost consisted of a yamen, as well as other buildings (which eventually grew into a low-lying, densely packed neighbourhood within the walls), in the era between the 1890s and the 1940s. The enclave remained part of Chinese territory despite the turbulent events of the early 20th century that saw the fall of the Qing government, the establishment of a Chinese republic and later, the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Squatters, (whether former residents or - more likely - newcomers), began to occupy the Walled City, resisting several attempts by Britain in 1948 to drive them out. With no wall to protect it (initially), the Walled City became a haven for crooks and drug addicts, as the Hong Kong Police had no right to enter the City (and mainland China refused to take care of it). The 1949 foundation of the People's Republic of China added thousands of refugees to the population, many from Guangdong; by this time, Britain had had enough, and simply adopted a 'hands-off' policy. A murder that occurred in Kowloon Walled City in 1959 set off a small diplomatic crisis, as the two nations each tried to get the other to accept responsibility for a vast tract of land now virtually ruled by anti-Manchurian Triads (the Hong Kong organised crime syndicate).
The Triads' rule lasted up until the mid-1970s, when a 1973-1974 series of over 3,000 police raids occurred in Kowloon Walled City. Over time, both the British and the PRC governments found this massive, anarchic city to be a bit too much - despite the low crime. If the 'Black Market' ever had a physical location, this would have been it, and the sanitary conditions were poor. After the Joint Declaration in 1984, the PRC allowed British authorities to demolish the City and resettle its inhabitants. The mutual decision to tear down the walled city was made in 1987. The government spent up to HK$ 3 billion to resettle the residents and shops. Some residents were not satisfied with the compensation, and some even obstructed the demolition in every possible way. Ultimately, everything was settled, and the Walled City became a park.
Views of Rennie's Mill
Rennie's Mill got its name from a Canadian businessman named Alfred Herbert Rennie, who established a flour mill at Junk Bay. The business failed, and Rennie hanged himself there in 1908. The incident gave the Chinese name for the site 吊頸嶺 (Tiu Ken Leng), meaning "Hanging (neck) Ridge". The name was later changed to similar sounding 調景嶺 (Tiu King Leng) because it was inauspicious.
In the 1950s the (British) Hong Kong government settled a considerable number of refugees from China - former Nationalist soldiers and other Kuomintang supporters - at Rennie's Mill, following the Chinese civil war. For many years the area was a Kuomintang enclave known as "Little Taiwan", with the flag of the Republic of China flying, its own school system and practically off-limits to the Royal Hong Kong Police Force.
In 1996 the Hong Kong government finally forcibly evicted Rennie's Mill's residents, ostensibly to make room for new town developments, as part of the Tseung Kwan O New Town, but widely understood to be a move to please the Communist Chinese government before Hong Kong reverted to Communist Chinese rule in 1997.
Before the eviction, Rennie's Mill could be reached by the winding, hilly and narrow Po Lam Road South. At that time, Rennie's Mill's only means of public transport were the routes 90 and 290 of KMB, which were operated by minibuses, and by water transport.
Drafting of Basic Law
The Basic Law was drafted by a Committee composed of members from both Hong Kong and mainland China. A Basic Law Consultative Committee formed purely by Hong Kong people was established in 1985 to canvass views in Hong Kong on the drafts. The first draft was published in April 1988, followed by a five-month public consultation exercise. The second draft was published in February 1989, and the subsequent consultation period ended in October 1989. The Basic Law was formally promulgated on 4 April 1990 by the NPC, together with the designs for the flag and emblem of the HKSAR. Some members of the Basic Law drafting committee were ousted by Beijing following the 4 June 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, after voicing views supporting the students.
The Basic Law was said to be a mini-constitution drafted with the participation of Hong Kong people. Deng Xiaoping's influence was obvious: no "three-legged stool", general elections could only be introduced step by step, and the future administrative personnel should be patriotic and love Hong Kong. The political system had been the most controversial issue in the drafting of the Basic Law. The special issue sun-group adopted the political model put forward by Louis Cha. This "main-stream" proposal was criticised for being too conservative. According to Clauses 158 and 159 of the Basic Law, powers of interpretation and amendment of the Basic Law are vested in the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress, respectively. Hong Kong people have limited influence.
The Rose Garden Project
After the June 4 incident in 1989, the Hong Kong government proposed a grand "Rose Garden Project" to restore faith and solidarity among Hong Kong residents. In the midst of Sino-British argument, workers were building the Western Harbour Crossing. As the construction of the new airport would extend well after the handover, Governor Wilson met PRC Premier Li Peng in Beijing to ease the mind of the PRC government on the one hand, and put the construction work in phases on the other. After three years of negotiations, Britain and the PRC finally reached an agreement over the construction of the new airport and signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Removing hills and reclaiming land, it took only a few years to construct the new airport.
Localisation of top government officials
The last governor
Chris Patten became the last governor of Hong Kong. This was regarded as a turning point in Hong Kong's history. Unlike the predecessors, Patten was not a diplomat but a career politician and former MP. He introduced democratic reforms which pushed PRC-British relations to a standstill and affected the negotiations for a smooth handover.
Patten introduced a package of electoral reforms in the Legislative Council. These reforms proposed to enlarge the electorate, thus making voting in the Legislative Council more democratic. This move posed significant changes because the Hong Kong people would have the power to make decisions regarding their future.
The transfer of sovereignty - the handover
The handover ceremony was held at the new wing of the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre in Wan Chai on the night of 30th June 1997. The principal British guest was The Prince of Wales who read a farewell speech on behalf of the Queen. The newly elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair and the last Hong Kong governor Chris Patten also attended. Representing China were the Chairman of the People's Republic of China, Jiang Zemin; and Tung Chee-hwa, the first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Bibliography
Chris Patten (1999). East and West. . ISBN 0771069812. Pb'k. ISBN 0330373080