Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong

Hong Kong has been Chinese territory since ancient times. In modern times Britain took Hong Kong Island and the southern tip of the Kowloon Peninsula and forcibly leased the “New Territories” for 99 years. In September 1982 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited China, and in talks with her Deng Xiaoping made clear that sovereignty was not a matter for discussion and that China would take Hong Kong back in 1997: “If China did not take Hong Kong back in 1997, forty-eight years after the founding of the People’s Republic, no Chinese leader or government could answer to the Chinese people.” After twenty-two rounds of difficult negotiations, the Joint Declaration of the Governments of China and Britain on the Question of Hong Kong was formally signed in Beijing on 19 December 1984. It confirmed that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong on 1 July 1997; China’s basic policies were that, under the principle of “one country, two systems,” a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region would be established with “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” and a high degree of autonomy, and that Hong Kong’s existing capitalist social and economic systems and way of life would remain unchanged for fifty years. In 1987 China and Portugal signed a joint declaration on Macao, confirming that China would resume sovereignty over Macao on 20 December 1999. In 1990 the National People’s Congress adopted the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The Joint Declaration marked the first success of “one country, two systems” over Hong Kong and offered a new model for the peaceful settlement of international disputes.