June 29, 2022
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On July 1, 1997, the United Kingdom handed over the sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, ending more than 150 years of rule over Hong Kong 。
Historically, there have been many versions of the origin of the name Hong Kong, so I won’t go into too much detail here. What is certain is that most historians admit that the Qing government and the British Empire signed three treaties in the mid-19th century, and finally ceded and leased this piece of land, islands, harbors, and waters along the southern coast of China, which truly enabled Hong Kong. become an important part of modern Chinese history.
The three historical treaties mentioned above left a trilogy of “ceding” for Hong Kong. On the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty, the BBC Chinese summary reviews the causes and consequences of this history.
Overture: “An Unparalleled Port”
In the 19th century, the British Empire’s economic and military strength was at its peak, and its influence radiated all over the world. It was called “the empire on which the sun never sets”. However, there was a huge trade deficit between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty.
In the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, there was an incident in which Margoni visited and sought trade and was declined. In the 21st year of the Jiaqing Dynasty (1816), Sir Amherst, a British diplomat, led a delegation to visit China again to discuss business matters. In the end, the mission failed due to an etiquette dispute – he was unwilling to tell China. The emperor knelt down and kowtowed, and the Jiaqing emperor drove him away in a fit of anger. This matter is recorded in the history books and people are familiar with it.
The mission should stop in Hong Kong before leaving the country. Liu Shuyong’s “Concise History of Hong Kong” (Third Edition) records that a historian who was visiting China with a delegation at that time saw the potential of this harbour, which many in Britain saw at the time as barren, filthy, and worthless: “From ships entering and leaving, In terms of the convenience and the terrain surrounded by land, this port is an unparalleled port in the world.”
Lord Amersted was later sent to India as a governor, and what he had failed to do on his mission to China, he had inadvertently done because of the opium trade.
The opium trade reversed Britain’s huge trade deficit with China, and opened up the eastern market for British wool textiles. British textiles were sold to India, Indian opium was exported to China, and Chinese tea and silk were sold to the United Kingdom, forming a hugely profitable Chinese market. Anglo-Indian triangular trade chain.
According to many historical records, although the highest levels of the Qing government were well aware of the dangers of opium importation, the central and local forces of the Qing government had disagreements over how to deal with foreign trade—especially how to deal with the outside world. In the end, the strong anti-smoking faction represented by Lin Zexu forcibly seized opium from British merchants, and the “Humen cigarette sales” eventually led to military conflict. The British fleet quickly defeated the Qing army, forcing the Qing government to negotiate.
image source,BBC Chinese
“Nanjing Treaty” – ceded Hong Kong Island (including Ap Lei Chau and nearby islands)
On August 29, 1842, it was signed on the British warship “Han Hua”. The British called it the Treaty of Nanking “Nanjing Treaty”, and the Qing government called it “Ten Thousand Years Agreement” and “Jiangning Treaty”.
The “Nanjing Treaty” was the first ceding land indemnity treaty in modern Chinese history, which opened the door to a closed country. It is considered by Chinese historians to be the “first unequal treaty” in modern history.
The term “unequal treaty” was first proposed by the Chinese Kuomintang in the 1920s, and was originally used to refer to a series of treaties signed by Western powers and the Manchu and Beiyang governments.
On January 1, 1923, Sun Yat-sen, the former premier of the Republic of China, issued the “Manifesto of the Chinese Kuomintang”, which mentioned “to establish unequal treaties with other countries. Although the Qing court has been overthrown, I have fallen into the status of a colony of foreign powers.”
This concept is similar to the “Imposed Treaty” that Western legal circles began to use in the 18th century. Both refer to treaties signed under force and coercion, and there are also “defeated treaties”.
The first Opium War (1840-1842) led directly to the signing of the Treaty of Nanking. The main content of the treaty is that the Qing Dynasty permanently ceded Hong Kong Island (together with Ap Lei Chau and nearby islands) to the United Kingdom, paid 14.7 million taels of silver to the British government and merchants, and opened five trades, including Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai.
The treaty entered into force on June 26, 1843, with the approval of the two monarchs.
This was the first ceded land in modern Chinese history. The British government also obtained diplomatic powers such as tariff agreements, extraterritorial rights, demarcation of concessions, unilateral most-favored-nation treatment, and ports for warships through the later signed trade regulations and aftermath clauses.
The number of trading ports increased from just one in Guangzhou before the war to five, which objectively facilitated the entry of Western technology, culture, ideology and religion into China, which was still a feudal society. The rise of Shanghai has also been attributed to the opening of ports. From 1853, Shanghai began to replace Guangzhou as China’s largest trading port.
Related Wars: The First Opium War
In 1840-1842, the first Opium War broke out. This war from the 20th to 22nd year of Daoguang, also known as the Sino-British War and the Trade War, was a series of military conflicts between the two empires, involving Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Taiwan.
In August 1842, the British army arrived in Nanjing, the Qing army defending the city begged for peace, and Emperor Daoguang agreed. On August 29, on the British warship “Han Hua Hua” moored on the Xiaguan River in Jiangning Prefecture, Nanjing, the Qing imperial envoys Qiying, Yilibu, Niu Jian, the governor of Liangjiang, and the British plenipotentiary representative of the army, the army lieutenant general Lord Pu Dingcha (Pottinger, Sir Pottinger) signed the Treaty of Nanking.
For Hong Kong, the “Nanjing Treaty” signed by the Qing government and Britain after the defeat of the First Opium War determined the fate of the next hundred years.
Some Chinese historians believe that this was the first “war” launched by modern Western countries against China, marking the beginning of modern Chinese history, opening the country’s door and accelerating the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
In recent years, some Chinese and foreign historians have begun to object to the above statement, arguing that the entire “Opium War” actually did not really have a large-scale battle between the two sides.
In the book “The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Beginning of Modern China” published in 2015 by the famous British sinologist and historian Julia Lovell, she checked the historical data of the Qing Dynasty and pointed out that shortly after the Opium War, Britain’s influence on the Qing Dynasty The opium trade was basically replaced by the legalized opium cultivation and trade in China, so it is untrue to say that the Opium War had shaken the Qing Dynasty. Some Chinese historians also pointed out that the Taiping Rebellion that occurred shortly after that caused the loss of tens of millions of people in all parts of the Central Plains, and only really caused the Qing Dynasty to damage its national strength and to decline.
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After the Eight-Power Allied Forces entered Beijing, Li Hongzhang, the imperial envoy, signed the Xin Chou Treaty with the foreign powers, stipulating huge indemnities.
“Beijing Treaty” – ceded Kowloon
The Sino-British Treaty of Beijing in 1860 was one of the treaties signed by the Qing government with Britain, France and Russia after the British and French allied forces captured Beijing during the Second Opium War (1856-1860).
The treaty was signed in Beijing on October 24, 1860.
Through this treaty, the Kowloon Peninsula (south of Boundary Street in present-day Hong Kong) was ceded to the United Kingdom and incorporated into British Hong Kong.
In addition, Tianjin was added as a commercial port, confirming that the previous Sino-British Tianjin Treaty was still valid, and the Qing government paid 8 million taels of silver plus 500,000 taels of pension.
Russia and France also got what they wanted through their respective treaties. France received an indemnity of 8 million taels of silver, Dalian opened a commercial port, and returned Catholic property previously confiscated.
In addition to confirming the 1858 Sino-Russian Treaty of Aigun, Russia acquired 400,000 square kilometers of territory east of the Ussuri River to the Sea of Japan, including the ice-free port Vladivostok, and opened Zhangjiakou, Kulun, and Kashgar as commercial ports.
Related Wars: The Second Opium War
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, in the mid-1850s, the Qing government was busy suppressing the “Taiping Rebellion” (Taiping Rebellion 1850-64), and the British tried to expand their trading rights in China, finding an excuse to restart hostilities.
In 1854, the United Kingdom proposed to revise the relevant provisions of the Treaty of Nanking. Two years later, it proposed to revise the treaty again. The United States and France echoed it, but the Qing government rejected it.
After the “Yaluo Incident” and “Mafa Incident” in 1856, the British army bombarded Guangzhou to declare war and went all the way north, capturing Guangzhou and Tianjin successively.
On October 24th, the imperial envoy Yi Xin, who stayed in Beijing, signed a treaty with the British plenipotentiary Elgin in Beijing.
In addition to the ceding of Kowloon and the opening of the Tianjin commercial port, the treaty also confirmed the right of the British minister to be stationed in Beijing, and allowed foreign businessmen to recruit Chinese laborers to serve as coolies overseas, and allowed Western missionaries to lease and buy land and build churches in China.
The “Beijing Treaty” signed after the Second Opium War not only expanded the territory of British Hong Kong, but since then, she is no longer an “isolated island” surrounded by sea.
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Ruins of Yuanmingyuan, around 1860
“Special Clause for the Expansion of Hong Kong’s Boundaries” – Leasing the New Territories for 99 years
Lease signed in Peking on June 9, 1898.
This is the last part of Hong Kong’s ceded “Trilogy”. The lease covers the south of the Shenzhen River, the north of Kowloon Boundary Street (the boundary of the original ceded land), Dapeng Bay in the east, Shenzhen Bay in the west, and more than 200 nearby islands. 376 square miles, zoned for New Kowloon and New Territories.
The lease term expired on June 30, 1997, so it became one of the important reasons and basis for the handover of Hong Kong sovereignty.
The main reason why the UK wants to expand British Hong Kong is to counteract the expansion of Russia and France in China, as well as to deal with the problems of public health and food supply caused by Hong Kong’s increasing population density.
Indirectly related wars: Sino-Japanese War
In 1895, the Qing government signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, marking the end of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War. Chinese literature and history records often describe it this way: After the Treaty of Shimonoseki, “the great powers set off a frenzy to carve up China.”
After the Sino-Japanese War, Germany, France, and Russia successively asked China to lease more land. Russia wanted Port Lushun and Dalian, and France wanted to enter Guangdong and Guangxi, and lease Guangzhou Bay. The United Kingdom believes that a military deployment is needed to strengthen Hong Kong’s defense, and therefore it needs to expand the area of control.
On April 2, 1898, negotiations for leasing the New Territories began. On June 9, representatives of the Qing court, Li Hongzhang, Xu Yingyu, and the then British Minister to China, Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald, signed a lease agreement in Beijing.
Since the purpose of this move is mainly aimed at Russia and France, Chinese warships still have the right to use the Kowloon City Wharf, retaining administrative power there, except for military-related matters.
In December of the same year, the United Kingdom unilaterally took over Kowloon City, and the following year took over the New Territories, incorporating it into a colony and managing it independently. New Kowloon and the New Territories together with Hong Kong Island and Kowloon constitute the three major regions of British Hong Kong.
After the addition of the New Territories, the territory of British Hong Kong has been greatly expanded, and what we now call the Hong Kong area – consisting of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories – has taken shape.
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UK-China Negotiations 100 Years Later
In 1984, China and the UK signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and sovereignty over the entire territory of Hong Kong was handed over to the People’s Republic of China on July 1, 1997.
In 1979, the lease term in the New Territories stipulated in the “Special Article on the Expansion of Hong Kong’s Boundaries” was less than 20 years, which made Hong Kong’s future uncertain and adversely affected Hong Kong’s land deeds and other arrangements.
The then Governor of Hong Kong, MacLehose, raised the issue of Hong Kong’s future with the then Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping, marking the start of negotiations between China and the UK on the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong.
In May of the same year, Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Conservative Party ruled the United Kingdom.
On September 24, 1982, Mrs Thatcher visited China and met with Deng Xiaoping, then chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China and China’s top leader, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The two sides had a showdown on the issue of Hong Kong sovereignty.
Deng Xiaoping refused to recognize the validity of the three treaties signed by the Qing Dynasty, and Margaret Thatcher insisted that the three treaties were valid.
In “The Era of Deng Xiaoping”, Professor Vogel of Harvard University reviewed in detail the 22 rounds of behind-the-scenes contests between China and the UK on Hong Kong’s return. He wrote:
“Deng Xiaoping announced in his opening remarks that China would take back its sovereignty in 1997, would support the prosperity of Hong Kong, and hoped for the cooperation of the British government. But Mrs Thatcher responded that, in the eyes of the British, according to the three treaties, Hong Kong is a Belonging to the United Kingdom, these treaties are valid under international law and can only be changed by mutual agreement.”
“Deng Xiaoping flatly rejected her suggestion. There are three main issues, he said: sovereignty; how China will govern after 1997 to maintain Hong Kong’s prosperity; and how can the Chinese and British governments work together to avoid major chaos before 1997. He said: “The issue of sovereignty is not an issue that can be discussed, and China has no room for manoeuvre on this issue.”
The negotiation between China and Britain finally made a breakthrough under Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher. China promised to keep Hong Kong’s capitalist system and way of life unchanged for 50 years, while the United Kingdom agreed to return Hong Kong sovereignty to China on July 1, 1997 .
On December 19, 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Beijing again and signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration on behalf of the two governments with Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang.
In the Sino-British Joint Declaration, China and the UK have different descriptions of the handover of Hong Kong sovereignty. The document refers to the Chinese government’s decision to “restore the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong” on July 1, 1997, and another clause refers to the British government “returning Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China” on the same date.