124 years ago today, the Empire of China ceded the territories of Hong Kong to Great Britain. Known in China as the “Century of Humiliation,” the ruling Qing Dynasty (pronounced “ching,” by the way) was repeatedly forced militarily during this period to cede strategically and economically important territories to colonial powers. In 1898, for example, Great Britain forced the lease of Hong Kong for 99 years – but implicitly the empire assumed that the territories would remain permanently, the time frame serving only to save China’s face. As the end of the lease approached in the 1970s and there was not much left of the Empire, talks were held between the People’s Republic of China and Great Britain, and a decade later an agreement was reached. Hong Kong was ceded to China at the end of the lease in 1997 with a promise to leave the territories as a special administrative zone with its own political system, capitalist economic system and liberal civil rights for fifty years under the principle of “one country, two systems.”
Since the handover, there has been consistent tension between Hong Kong and the mainland Chinese government due to the different systems, cultural differences, and the simultaneous economic importance of Hong Kong to the Chinese economy. When a new extradition law was passed in 2019, tensions reached their highest point in years. Mass protests involved about a quarter of Hong Kong’s population. At the same time, Beijing continues to expand its influence; in 2020, most opposition actions in Hong Kong were criminalized. Whether democracy can prevail in Hong Kong will probably finally be seen in 2047 with the end of the 50-year Special Administrative Region.
(ps)