Hong Kong: City on Borrowed Time
Hong Kong officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR) is a metropolitan area with over 7.5 million residents of various nationalities and has been a symbolization of the international financial hub of the world. It is one of the densely populated cities on earth where more than 3.5 million people live above the 14th floor.
The current political crisis in Hong Kong can be explained by its complex history. Hong Kong has been a place with an exuberant past.
It all started in the mid-19th century with opium wars that were fought over half a century and was a decisive victory of the British that subsequently led to the end of the Qing dynasty regime that ruled China from 1644 to 1912 and later the emergence of the People’s Republic of China.
The first Opium War (1839–42) was fought between China and Britain as China’s attempts to foil the opium trade was being illegally exported mainly from India to China by foreign traders. It led to widespread opium addiction in china causing serious social and economic disruption there.
Britain captured the territory of Nanjing and peace negotiations started where the Qing dynasty agreed to cede Hong Kong island.
The Second Opium War (1856–60), the Anglo-French War in China, was fought by Britain against China where France joined its western counterpart as an excuse for the murder of a French missionary in the interior of China in early 1856.
In October 1860, Beijing was captured and plundered by Britain and France joint military expedition resulted in the Chinese signing the Beijing Convention, in which they agreed to a new revised treaty imposed on China legalizing both Christianity and Opium and ceded the southern portion of the Kowloon Peninsula adjacent to Hong Kong to Britain which later became part of the colony of Hong Kong.
In 1898, under the Sino-Britain agreement, Britain would take control of the New Territories under a 99-year lease. At the end of the 99 years, China will resume its sovereignty over Hong Kong.
By end of world war II, saw a massive shift of political power shared across the world. In 1945 after the defeat of Japan in world war II, causing the resumption of British sovereignty back in Hong Kong and the renewal of the Nationalist-Communist Civil War in mainland China.
It prompted a large influx of refugees from the mainland, causing a huge population surge: the population grew from 600,000 to 2.1 million. Unrest in China played a vital role in businesses relocating their assets and capital from Shanghai to Hong Kong. Together with Cheap labor of the immigrants and fresh capital flow sowed seeds of Hong Kong’s economic miracle in the second half of the 20th century.
In 1984, a Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed by Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher agreeing that China would give Hong Kong some political and social autonomy through a “one country, two systems” policy for a 50-year-period i.e. 2047.
In July 1997, The handover ceremony of Hong Kong officially marked the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the People’s Republic of China in an internationally televised event. Hong Kong, one of the most prosperous colony was returned to China after over 150 years of British rule.
Sources —
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/hong-kong-history-explain-relationship-china
- https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-how-a-more-assertive-british-government-can-uphold-the-one-country-two-systems-formula-119911
- britannica.com/topic/Opium-Wars
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_in_Hong_Kong
- https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
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