China had promised the territory may just retain its civil, financial and political liberties for fifty years below the “one nation, two programs” framework. Then again, in recent times Beijing has significantly restricted rights to unfastened speech and meeting and nearly eradicated political opposition below the rubric of keeping up nationwide safety.
1841: The Qing dynasty cedes Hong Kong Island to Britain after China’s defeat within the first Opium Battle. British management starts the following 12 months, serving to to develop industry in items from tea to porcelain, whilst China’s management offers with inner conflicts and extending calls for for international get admission to to its huge home marketplace.
1860: The colony grows after the Qing cede Kowloon, a mountainous area reverse Hong Kong Island, to Britain after the second one Opium Battle. China accedes to the calls for after the imperial courtroom is pushed from Beijing and its famed Summer season Palace is sacked, looted and torched by means of international troops.
1898: Britain rentals the New Territories, a big space round Kowloon, from China for 99 years, or till 1997. The in large part rural space supplies a buffer towards unrest inside of mainland China and bigger financial viability for the colony as an entire. The hire additionally units the clock ticking on Hong Kong’s eventual go back to Chinese language rule.
1941-45: Japan occupies Hong Kong till the top of International Battle II. British, Chinese language and allied forces resisted for 3 weeks, however have been pressured to give up towards overwhelming odds. In conjunction with anti-colonialism, rhetoric towards Jap wartime atrocities stays a central theme within the Communist Birthday party’s nationalistic enchantment.
1984: Britain consents to go back Hong Kong to China in 1997 below a “one nation, two programs” framework that provides town its personal financial and political device for fifty years. The Sino-British Joint Settlement is registered with the United International locations, despite the fact that Beijing now says it’s null and void and rejects any international grievance as meddling in its inner affairs.
1997: Hong Kong is passed over to Chinese language rule in a rite attended by means of Prince Charles and Chinese language President Jiang Zemin. Hours later, Folks’s Liberation Military troops input town in a extremely public show of China’s repudiation of colonial rule.
2003: Within the biggest protest because the handover, masses of 1000’s of electorate march towards proposed nationwide safety law that might have criminalized “subversion” towards the Chinese language executive. The invoice was once therefore withdrawn in what was once observed as a victory for civic group and a sign of Beijing’s persevered
– despite the fact that waning – tolerance for dissent.
2014: Protesters searching for direct elections for Hong Kong’s chief lay siege to executive headquarters for 79 days however fail to win any concessions. The protests spawn a technology of younger activists who will proceed to push for higher freedoms towards an increasingly more intransigent Chinese language management.
2017: Chinese language chief Xi Jinping visits Hong Kong at the twentieth anniversary of its go back to Chinese language rule, throughout which he delivers a speech stating Beijing will settle for no opposition. Lengthy-time civil servant and shut Beijing best friend Carrie Lam turns into Hong Kong’s leader government with a mandate to put in force China’s will, whilst keeping up town’s standing as a global industry hub.
2019: Protests escape over proposed law that may have see Hong Kongers and international citizens despatched to mainland China for trials in a criminal device beset with accusations of ill-treatment and compelled confessions. Whilst the invoice is withdrawn, protests proceed amongst most commonly scholars and younger folks pissed off with a loss of illustration and alternatives in probably the most global’s maximum economically divided towns.
2020: Following a heavy crackdown on protesters, opposition figures and unbiased media, China’s rubber-stamp parliament imposes a sweeping Nationwide Safety Legislation that jails 1000’s of presidency critics, with others searching for asylum in another country or being intimidated into silence. Adjustments to the make-up of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council make sure simplest “patriots” unswerving to Beijing could have a voice.
2022: Former safety leader John Lee is put in as Hong Kong’s leader government following what was once broadly observed as a sham election wherein he was once the one candidate. Lee is amongst quite a lot of Hong Kong and mainland Chinese language officers below U.S. and Eu visa bans for his or her roles in cracking down on human rights within the territory.
Government require new textbooks announcing that Hong Kong was once by no means a British colony, claiming China by no means known the treaties over its standing. The transfer is observed as an try to erase the reminiscence of previous freedoms and assert the ideology of China’s “nice rejuvenation” this is central to Xi’s political time table.
