Hong Kong Handover: A Complicated History

On July 1st, a few days ago, was the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover. But to understand the handover, we’re going to look at a complicated history dating back a century and more.

Hong Kong is a Chinese Special Administrative Region consisting of Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula, and the New Territories. But it wasn’t always like this. Before the handover, Hong Kong was recognized as part of the United Kingdom, ceded in the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century by China following a trade dispute. So what were the Opium Wars, what resulted in them, and why was Hong Kong eventually given back to China?

To understand the Opium Wars, we need to know what trade was like back then. The UK loved tea and brought large amounts of it from China and other Chinese products like silk by exchanging silver. However, even though the United Kingdom had access to some silver mines at the time, it still gradually ran out of them. But because of their need for the tea, they decided to use another way to get it. Since their silver had gotten traded into China, the UK started smuggling and trading another product in exchange for the silver, which they then traded for even more tea. And the product they used was opium, illegal in China at the time for its threats to human health.

Many Chinese still liked using it in the shadows, even if opium was illegal, so the British traders successfully got lots of silver to trade for more tea. It wasn’t long before the Chinese officials found out. And when they found out, they destroyed all the opium stored in warehouses throughout the country. Of course, the British traders were angry, so they decided to wage war over it. The strange thing was that the Suez Canal didn’t exist back then. English battleships had to sail to the tip of Africa (the Cape of Good Hope) and then round back to China to fight the battle. So accounting for that, communication back then was also slow, resulting in many battle orders arriving nine months late.

Anyway, what is this opium that resulted in the war? Opium is a depressant drug that slows down messages traveling between your body and brain. Opium comes in the form of a sticky dark-brown gum with a strong odor. It can also get manufactured into a liquid or powder. It can be smoked, eaten raw or as a pill, or made to be drunk. Either way, it could pose health risks and even lead to death.

So back to the war raging on between the British and Chinese. Fast forward to two Opium Wars, and we have an agreement between the UK and China. China gave the territory that would become Hong Kong to the British in exchange for peace since the Chinese army got outgunned by the British forces. However, Hong Kong wouldn’t forever remain British. It was only for 99 years, which to the English negotiators at the time was “as good as forever.” It turned out it wasn’t forever, and in 1997 Hong Kong would return to being part of China. And no one knew that Hong Kong would become a prosperous city decades after the agreement.

By the time of the handover date in 1997, Hong Kong had become a major port city in Asia, and the British way of life had gotten embedded in every corner of it. As the date was coming up, politicians and officials from the two countries discussed the details of a ceremony that would get held in Hong Kong for the handover. And then the day came and went, and on the stroke of midnight, July 1st, 1997, Hong Kong became Chinese territory again.

Currently, Hong Kong is governed by the terms “one country, two systems,” which was agreed to last 50 years. The goal of this system was to enable stability of the Hong Kong economy and by allowing British ways of living to continue, hopefully resulting in a smoother transition.

And now we are 25 years, or halfway, through the 50 years agreed. Through the complicated history of Hong Kong, we can tell that the two countries have truthfully kept to their promises, even if it is more than a century later and in a more advanced and growing world. That’s the end of this production from the New News Newsminute. Thank you for reading, and tune in next time for more international news updates.