Timeline of Hong Kong beneath 25 years of Chinese rule

China had promised the territory might retain its civil, financial and political liberties for 50 years beneath the “one country, two systems” framework. However, in recent times Beijing has severely restricted rights to free speech and meeting and just about eradicated political opposition beneath the rubric of sustaining nationwide safety.

1841: The Qing dynasty cedes Hong Kong Island to Britain after China’s defeat within the first Opium War. British administration begins the subsequent yr, serving to to develop commerce in items from tea to porcelain, whereas China’s management offers with inner conflicts and growing calls for for international entry to its monumental home market.

1860: The colony grows after the Qing cede Kowloon, a mountainous area reverse Hong Kong Island, to Britain after the second Opium War. China accedes to the calls for after the imperial courtroom is pushed from Beijing and its famed Summer Palace is sacked, looted and torched by international troops.

1898: Britain leases the New Territories, a big space round Kowloon, from China for 99 years, or till 1997. The largely rural space supplies a buffer towards unrest inside mainland China and larger financial viability for the colony as an entire. The lease additionally units the clock ticking on Hong Kong’s eventual return to Chinese rule.

1941-45: Japan occupies Hong Kong till the top of World War II. British, Chinese and allied forces resisted for 3 weeks, however had been compelled to give up towards overwhelming odds. Along with anti-colonialism, rhetoric towards Japanese wartime atrocities stays a central theme within the Communist Party’s nationalistic enchantment.

1984: Britain agrees to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 beneath a “one country, two systems” framework that offers town its personal financial and political system for 50 years. The Sino-British Joint Agreement is registered with the United Nations, though Beijing now says it’s null and void and rejects any international criticism as meddling in its inner affairs.

1997: Hong Kong is handed over to Chinese rule in a ceremony attended by Prince Charles and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Hours later, People’s Liberation Army troops enter town in a extremely public show of China’s repudiation of colonial rule.

2003: In the most important protest because the handover, tons of of 1000’s of residents march towards proposed nationwide safety laws that will have criminalized “subversion” towards the Chinese authorities. The invoice was subsequently withdrawn in what was seen as a victory for civic group and a sign of Beijing’s continued
– though waning – tolerance for dissent.

2014: Protesters searching for direct elections for Hong Kong’s chief lay siege to authorities headquarters for 79 days however fail to win any concessions. The protests spawn a technology of younger activists who will proceed to push for larger freedoms towards an more and more intransigent Chinese management.

2017: Chinese chief Xi Jinping visits Hong Kong on the twentieth anniversary of its return to Chinese rule, throughout which he delivers a speech declaring Beijing will settle for no opposition. Long-time civil servant and shut Beijing ally Carrie Lam turns into Hong Kong’s chief govt with a mandate to implement China’s will, whereas sustaining town’s standing as a world enterprise hub.

2019: Protests escape over proposed laws that would have see Hong Kongers and international residents despatched to mainland China for trials in a authorized system beset with accusations of ill-treatment and compelled confessions. While the invoice is withdrawn, protests proceed amongst largely college students and younger folks pissed off with an absence of illustration and alternatives in one of many world’s most economically divided cities.

2020: Following a heavy crackdown on protesters, opposition figures and impartial media, China’s rubber-stamp parliament imposes a sweeping National Security Law that jails 1000’s of presidency critics, with others searching for asylum overseas or being intimidated into silence. Changes to the make-up of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council guarantee solely “patriots” loyal to Beijing can have a voice.

2022: Former safety chief John Lee is put in as Hong Kong’s chief govt following what was extensively seen as a sham election through which he was the one candidate. Lee is amongst a lot of Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officers beneath U.S. and European visa bans for his or her roles in cracking down on human rights within the territory.

Authorities require new textbooks asserting that Hong Kong was by no means a British colony, claiming China by no means acknowledged the treaties over its standing. The transfer is seen as an try to erase the reminiscence of previous freedoms and assert the ideology of China’s “great rejuvenation” that’s central to Xi’s political agenda.