Hong Kong’s Handover History and Development

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Table of Contents

Intorduction
Main body
Conclusion
Works Cited

Intorduction

Hong Kong came up as a coastal island located in the Southern part of China, having begun fishing as the main economic activity and it later engaging in salt manufacturing and trading. It later emerged to be one of the most strategic military ports in Asia. These factors made Hong Kong to flourish so much that it became one of the most flourishing economies enjoying a very high GDP. It also engaged in an active trade with China where it accounted for about a third of the total exports in the country (Ingham 234). The archeological discoveries date to about three hundred centuries back when tools made of stones that were used during the Old Stone Age were discovered in Sai Tung and Wong Tei Tung. Religious artifacts have also been found in the region but recently, some findings were made that suggested that Wong Tei Tung could have been one of the earliest settlements in Hong Kong. This paper will discuss the surrender or handover of Hong Kong during the 20^th century and its effect on the economic and social development of the country.

Main body

Hong Kong was included in the Oin dynasty of China in 221BC-206Bc and it was strongly established under the governance of Nanyue. Archeologists also excavated the tomb at Lei Cheng UK in order to assess the possibility of salt mining having taken place in the region. China also used the Tai Po Hoi Sea to search for pearl and this is dated back to the Han and Ming dynasties between 1368 and 1644 (Ingham 234). The Guangdong region of China greatly flourished during the Tang Dynasty and grew up to become an elaborate trade center. The Tuen Mun region, forming part of the new territories in Hong Kong, acted as a seaport nautical base, a salt manufacturing center and also served as a major region where pearls were hunted. In 1276, the Mongols invaded Southern Song Dynasty thereby making the court to be transferred to Fujan, later to Lantau and finally it got established in Kowloon. During this period, there was a significant rise in the population of Hong Kong as a large number of immigrants entered it from China where they were escaping war, unemployment and hunger. Most people depended on fishing, pearl hunting and salt production as a source of livelihood. During this time, a number of people constructed walls around villages for protection purposes. Oing Dynasty was the last to be involved with Hong Kong, since later, Hong Kong became colonized by Britain and a lot of attention around the world was turned to it (Ingham 244).

At the start of the 19^th century, the British Empire was importing tea from China while exporting watches, clocks and the likes, but since China was in need of enormous amounts of silver which Britain could not export; this resulted in the evolution of the opium trade in China. As a result of this, Lin Zexu informed Queen Victoria that the Oing State was not in support of the opium trade, this led to a war between China and Britain leading to the surrender of Hong Kong by China to Britain in 1842. The rule by the British was never readily accepted by the inhabitants of Kam Tin who waged a war against Britain which did not really turn successful.

After this takeover by Britain, Hong Kong greatly transformed into a modern society. A number of factories were put up. Other developments that occurred were the change in the way of thinking and the introduction of western system of education by Fredrick Stewart; this greatly distinguished Hong Kong from China which had been affected by the collapse of the Oing dynasty. During this time too, Hong Kong was affected by the bubonic plague that had originated from China, this therefore resulted in racial segregation in settlement regions in order to prevent the spread of the plague. As the world war one began in 1914, Some Chinese left Hong with the fear of being attacked. It is worth noting that the internal and external issues that were affecting China made it possible for Hong to be a possible target for the Japanese.

The Japanese waged war in Hong and finally they took control over it in 1941 when the British empire ceded Hong Kong to the Japanese; this was December 25^th, 1941, a day commonly known as the black Christmas by the locals of Hong Kong. The Japanese stayed in Hong Kong until 1945 and during their reign in Hong Kong, the country experienced a serious economic downturn and lack of sufficient food supplies. They also replaced the Hong Kong dollar with Japanese military yen. However, in 1945 as the world war ended, the British and the Chinese troops recaptured Hong Kong from Japan. At the end of the world war, the population of Hong Kong had significantly reduced but as China got taken over by the Communists, a number of people moved out of China into Hong Kong and the population steadily rose (Tsang 342).

As the Chinese moved into Hong Kong, they brought with them a lot of skilled labor that readily helped in reviving the economy. This growth led to the transformation of Hong Kong from sea port activities into industrial manufacturing of plastics, electrical appliances and shoes among other things as many investors relocated to Hong Kong from China. Due to this largely increasing population, a lot of squatter settlement centers emerged and as a result, instances of fire tragedies became the norm. The government reacted by constructing better housing facilities, the tourism sector also was booming and the local opera shows were replaced with the movies on screens. In the 1960s, the industrial sector grew with the textile industry being thee starting point, the concerns around this time was the effect of the industrialization on families which now had to spend more time at the factories that they did at home. Margaret Thatcher who was by then the British prime minister felt that the increased transparency between Britain and China would enable Britain to retain its authority over Hong Kong (Ngo 205).

The Sino-British declaration was commonly known as the joint declaration of the governments of the UK and Ireland and the PRC on the question of Hong Kong. The declaration was signed by the prime ministers of China and Britain, Margaret Thatcher and Zhao Ziyang respectively. The declaration became effective as from May 27^th 1985 and was recorded by both governments. In the declaration the PRC had declared they had decide to regain authority over Hong Kong as from July 1^st 1997, the PRC also included in the declaration a list of policies that it was planning to establish in Hong Kong (Ngo 205). The UK also stated in the declaration that it was ready and willing to surrender Hong Kong back to China. In line with the declaration, the two countries also agreed that the one country-two systems rules would apply in Hong Kong and so PRC would therefore not be allowed to establish its socialist ideologies in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. They also agreed to have the capitalist system and the lifestyle of the inhabitants of Hong not to be interfered with for a period of fifty years (Ngo 208).

The declaration was signed as a result of the lease agreement between China and Britain over the new territories. After the first and the second opium wars, Britain was able to capture both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon under the Nianjing and the convention of Beijing treaty respectively. The new territories on the other hand were leased out to Britain by PRC for ninety nine years after negotiations between the British government and the Guangxu who was the emperor of China at that time. The signing of this declaration led to a lot of criticisms from some Britons who were asserting that Margaret Thatcher should not have given in to demands of the communist China. As much as some Britons felt that Thatcher should not have signed the declaration, Britain had a weaker stand in the deal at this point because Hong Kong could not be defended by the military. In addition, it depended on China for most of its water and food supply. The analysts therefore argued that it may not have been an economically wise decision to have Britain retaining Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon while ceding only the new territories to PRC (Carrol 4).

As the end of the lease period drew closer, there were a lot of issues concerning Hong Kong that started surfacing with one of the major problems being the complications brought about by the personal land leasing which were meant to become null in duration of less that a week before the new territories agreements expires. The cause of worry was that the Hong Kong government would be unable to offer new leases after 1997; and this, as a matter of fact, was going to interfere with the investor assurance in the place. The conclusion on this was made after a research was done which showed that the investor assurance would start to decline in the 1980s as a result of the 1997 closing date. In line with this, the governor of Hong Kong paid a visit to the Chinese foreign trade minister to discuss the issue of the expiry of the land leases in order to charter a way forward on the issue. From that date onwards, people became more aware of the necessity to do away with the improbability that the deadline was creating over Hong Kong, and therefore the Chinese and the British government came up with proposals to have negotiations between the two of them in order to solve the crisis.

As a result of this, the British prime minister visited China in September 1982 in order to start negotiations with the Chinese government, the result of which was the agreement between the British prime minister and Chinese Prime Minister, Xiaoping, on 24^th November 1982 that the two countries had concurred on getting into diplomatic agreements in order to maintain the solidity and development in Hong Kong. As the negotiations continued, it became quite clear that PRC was not ready in any way to let the British to continue their rule in Hong Kong after 1997. As the negotiations between the governments continued, the queen also insisted that it was important that whichever decision reached at be agreeable to the people of Hong Kong.

The handover of Hong Kong back to the Chinese by the British took place on July 1^st 1997 and Chris pattern became the last governor of Hong Kong. He was a diplomat who introduced democracy in Hong Kong and this encouraged negotiations between China and Britain thereby promoting a smooth handover of power to the Chinese (Herschensohn 134). The handover ceremony occurred at the Hong Kong convention and exhibition centre on June 30^th 1997. In attendance was the queen of the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chris pattern among several other dignitaries. From the Chinese side was Jiang Zemin the President of PRC and Tuang Chee-hwa (Herschensohn 134).

The handover of Hong Kong has had a lot of changes on the country though it is also worth noting that there are some things that have remained the same. For instance, the schools still teach English as one of the languages, the boundaries between Hong Kong and mainland China are still under the watch of the police just like they used to be, the names of streets named after the British officials have remained unchanged and the statues have also been left uninterffered with. The country has also joined international organizations such as worlds Trade Organization as an individual member and not as part of PRC. The transportation system and rules have also remained the same, for instance, in Hong Kong, drivers continue to keep to the left although in PRC it is the opposite, and again the country has retained its agreements with the other countries on international flights. Moreover, the flights between China and the country are actually treated as international flights and not local ones. The country has also retained its own telephone code which is different from that of China and the calls between the two countries are regarded as international calls. Another notable difference between the two countries is the fact that Hong Kong, unlike China, is allowed of political liberty as well as freedom of press which is not the case in China.

It is also important to note though that a number of things have remained the same. There are also a number of changes that have occurred and these include the fact that, earlier on the governor of the region was always chosen by the United Kingdom government unlike now where the governor is elected by a group of committee members in Hong Kong from across various fields. Instead of having the British flag being flown in public places, the Chinese flag and the Hong Kong SAR are the flags being flown in public places while the British flag is only flown in the British offices and their trading buildings. Since the money used in Hong Kong had earlier on bore the portrait of the queen, this has changed with most of the notes being taken out of circulation. The use of the word royal has also been abandoned in a number of institutions and organizations where it had been used except for a few cases. In addition, all the public holidays which were in connection to the British government have been replaced with those of PRC and Hong Kong. The red mail boxes of the British government have been repainted green while the British citizens are no longer able to work in Hong Kong for a whole year without a visa (Herschensohn 134).

Hong Kong came up as a coastal island located in the Southern part of China. Archeological findings in the region were made but they never got to the public until China and Britain plaid a role in having this happen. The country began with fishing as the main economic activity and it later engaged in salt manufacturing and trading before later emerging as one of the most strategic military ports. The archeological discoveries date to about three hundred centuries back when tools made of stones that were used during the Old Stone Age were discovered in Sai Tung and Wong Tei Tung. Religious artifacts have also been found in the region but recently, some findings were made, which suggested that Wong Tei Tung could have been one of the earliest settlements.

Conclusion

Works Cited

Carrol, Mark. A concise history of Hong Kong. London, Rowman and littlefields. 2007

Herschensohn, Bruce. Hong Kong at the Handover. Lexington Books. 2000.

Ingham, Michael. Hong Kong: a cultural history. London, Oxford University Press US. 2007.

Ngo, Tak-wing. Hong Kong’s History: State and Society under Colonial Rule. London, Routledge. 2002

Tsang, Steve. A Modern History of Hong. London, I.B.Tauris. 2007.

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Hong Kong’s Handover History and Development

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