Its handover marked the end of British colonial prestige in the Asia-Pacific region where it had never recovered from the Second World War, which included events such as the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse and the Fall of Singapore, as well as the subsequent Suez Crisis after the war. With a 1997 population of about 6.5 million, Hong Kong constituted 97 percent of the total population of all British Dependent Territories at the time and was one of the United Kingdom's last significant colonial territories. Hong Kong became China's first special administrative region it was followed by Macau after its transfer from Portugal in 1999 under similar arrangements. The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration had set the conditions under which Hong Kong was to be transferred, with China agreeing to maintain existing structures of government and economy under a principle of " one country, two systems" for a period of 50 years. The date of the handover in 1997 marked the end of this lease. After the First Opium War, its territory was expanded on two occasions in 1860 with the addition of Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island, and again in 1898, when Britain obtained a 99-year lease for the New Territories. Hong Kong had been a colony of the British Empire since 1841, except for four years of Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945. Hong Kong was established as a special administrative region of China (SAR) for 50 years, maintaining its own economic and governing systems from those of mainland China during this time, although influence from the central government in Beijing increased after the passing of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020.
This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. The Monument in Commemoration of the Return of Hong Kong to China in 2009Īuthority over Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China at midnight on 1 July 1997.
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