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Hong Kong has had a long and complex past and looks to have a waning and declining economy. Hong Kong has a peculiar political past. It was taken over by the British after the two Opium Wars. The Treaty of Nanjing gave the British control of the island port of Hong Kong and access to other ports. Afterwards, the second Opium War broke out and this gave the British control of the peninsula of Kowloon. Soon afterwards, the British leased the New Territories from Chinese for 99 years.
In 1984 they agreed to work together to help the future of Hong Kong. This would be the Joint Declaration and Hong Kong would be a Special Administration Region. Then, in 1997, Hong Kong was handed over to the Chinese once again by the British government. The people of Hong Kong live under a democratic system while the people of China live under Communism. The Hong Kong people still have 50 more years of democratic rule from Chinas promise. British influence is still apparent in the daily life of the people whom are still living there.
The economy of Hong Kong is booming and still expanding. The island port of Hong Kong has a unique past but has a pale future. There were many causes for the Opium Wars. For example, most of the Chinese people were turning into opium addicts. This was causing a serious problem for the Chinese people.
People were dying from opium left and right and the government was worried. As a result of the death of many Chinese people, the government outlawed the use of Opium. This meant that the British could no longer sell this addictive drug to the Chinese people to make a profit. Another cause of the Opium War was because the British could no longer sell opium for profit there. They would lose a great deal of money because they cant sell at home either. They also lost a lot of money since the commissioner took over their opium and publicly burned it.
They vowed revenge on the insolent Chinese people since they wont be able to get paid for it from the Chinese government. In addition, the outflow of the Chinese silver was disrupting their money system. There was more silver going out of the nation, than the amount of money flowing into the nation. The nation was in trouble because they didnt have enough money. This was causing a serious problem so the Chinese outlawed the opium causing the Opium War. The first Opium War caused a lot of trouble for the Chinese government.
On October 4 th, 1839, the British government got word of the Chinese prohibition of opium. They then decided to dispatch a war fleet to China. They wanted to have a port near China forever. The British Foreign Secretary H.
J. J. Palmerston delivered a note to the Qing government, threatening to use force against China if it would not cede one or several islands along its seacoast to Britain forever as demanded and designated by the British Plenipotentiaries. In April of 1840, the British government decided to wage a full-fledged war with China. In June of the same year the British forces arrived and the Opium War officially started. This Opium War would last for more than two long, tiring years.
The British army was overwhelming for the unprepared Chinese army. The British easily took over any of the ports and shocked and surprised the panic-stricken emperor. The emperor then sent out his men to go negotiate with the British who wanted access to more ports and the price of the amount of opium that they destroyed. After much fighting, the Chinese finally agreed to these and the Qing court signed the Treaty of Nanjing.
This was the official end of the war. The Treaty of Nanjing caused the end of the first Opium War. There were a lot of demands from the British that the Chinese had to accept, in fear that the British would take over their nation. For example, the Chinese agreed to open five more ports the to the British. The Chinese really wanted to limit the British influence but ended up having to open their ports to the British.
The opening of these ports lead to the end of the imperial system in China. The five new ports opened to the British really hurt the Chinese. In addition, the Chinese gave up the island port of Hong Kong in exchange for peace. This port would act as a permanent place for the British to stay.
The British didnt really like the island harbor of Hong Kong but they wanted to permanent property to stay on. Hong Kong, once in the hands of the British prospered greatly and was a tremendous help to the British. Also, they agreed to pay for the damaged opium, which they burn publicly a few years back. They British knew that the British government would never pay for the loss of the opium.
As a result of that, they decided to wage war with China to get somebody to reimburse their damaged goods. In the end, the Chinese had to comply with their demands and paid the British a great amount of money in indemnity. The Chinese had to agree to the demands of the British after two years. The Treaty of Nanjing was the first of many unfair treaties that the Chinese had to sign.
The Second Opium War and the Treaty was Beijing was also a great disappointing blow to the Chinese Qing government. The British, over the years, got more ambitious and wanted to peninsula of Kowloon. The peninsula of Kowloon would greatly benefit the British ships. If another European country had gotten control of the Kowloon Peninsula, the British ships would be in grave danger. Later, the British decided that they should seize Kowloon at any cost. In early September of 1860, they sent forces to attack the capital of China, Beijing.
On October 6, the British and the French attacked the suburbs of Beijing, causing the emperor to flee to safety. They then negotiated that the Qing government would pay them 300, 00 taels and sign the Treaty of Beijing or the British troops would take over the Imperial Palace. Under much pressure, the Qing government finally agreed to the terms the British and French gave. In addition, the British, whom were going to lease Kowloon, ended up taking it over by force due to the Treaty of Beijing. The Treaty of Beijing gave the British the peninsula of Kowloon and the British and French troops 300, 000 taels of silver. This was another great loss for the Qing dynasty and China.
This was another unfair treaty that the Chinese had to accept from the British. The second Opium War reeked havoc on the Chinese Qing dynasty. The British who had occupied the tiny island for 150 years have significantly altered the lives of the people who had resided there. The British gave them a better way of living. For example, the British gave them a lot more rights than there was in China. They were given the right to elect a representative to their Legislative Council.
The people whom worked for a government got an increase in their wages. They also developed labor laws that helped the Chinese residents; they established a minimum wage system and ended the indentured servant system. Also, they had a large amount of freedom from the British government. They received the freedom to speech, assembly, association, publication and strike.
These were freedoms that few peoples of the world had enjoyed. They enjoyed a much more free country than China did. In addition, they were considered equals to the British. They had all the same rights and equally enjoyed the same freedoms that the British had enjoyed for years. They had the same legal status and did not have to carry around passes to walk around the city (after 1897). Chinese to have freedom of residence, and be allowed to reside in the hilltop district eliminating the stain of national inequality.
The British gave the Chinese whom lived there a better life Hong Kong was a prosperous island-port under the control of the British, and as the year 1997 handover year was approaching China was worried about the future of Hong Kong. Since they didnt want to jeopardize Hong Kong's prosperity they set out find a way to keep it that way. This sparked the Sino-British talks. The Joint Declaration that was announced in 1984 will drastically affect the future of Hong Kong. The Joint Declaration was the Sino-British talks about the future of Hong Kong in July of 1983. These talks lasted for four years and will help guide the future of Hong Kong.
In 1984, the Hong Kong government published Green Paper, which outlined a plan for electing government representatives. The two sides decided that Hong Kong would live under a SAR or a Special Administrative Region. This meant that China and the British would govern Hong Kong. The government of the Hong Kong people would be a one country, two systems government. This government was to be active when the British first hand over Hong Kong to the Chinese government and it would maintain the capitalist system that it already has for 50 years. The Special Administrative Region would be governed by both sides and would live under Basic Law.
In 1985, with the Joint Declaration in force, the Peoples Republic of China created a committee to draft the Hong Kong Basic Law which would govern Hong Kong when China took over. Basic Law basically a type of mini constitution that the future Special Administrative Region would live under. It would tell how the Joint Declaration would be applied and what type of political system Hong Kong would live under. The Joint Declaration, the announcement of the Special Administrative Region and Basic law would be crucial to the future of Hong Kong. At midnight of July 1, 1997, Hong Kong was handed back to the Peoples Republic of China and became a Special Administrative Region. This was the official end of British rule, but not British influence.
The British will definitely, at least for the next fifty years, have a major impact of the lives of the people of Hong Kong. The Handover event was held in the HK Convention &# 038; Exhibition Center. There were numerous amounts of ceremonies that led up to the handover. These ceremonies started on June 30, 1997 with the last governor, Governor Patten, leaving the Government House for the last time. This was followed with a farewell ceremony to the British administration at 6 oclock PM. Later on the evening, they put on a fantastic fireworks display lasting one hour over Victoria Harbor.
Afterwards, at 9 oclock PM, the Reception Banquet was held for 4, 000 guests at the Hong Kong Convention Center. This was then followed by the handover ceremony, 11 p. m. This will include the lowering of the Union Jack and Hong Kong flags and the raising of the Chinese banner and Hong Kong's new flag. Finally, to end the long day of ceremonies, at midnight, Governor Patten and Prince Charles boarded the yacht to go back to Britain, thus formally ending 156 years of British rule. June 30, 1997 would forever go down in to history and will permanently affect Hong Kong.
Today, Hong Kong is a bustling island with a declining economy. Hong Kong is only 1, 092 sq. km and consists of the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories. There are approximately 6. 7 million people living in Hong Kong today with a growth rate of 3 %. 95 % of the population in Hong Kong is Chinese. It is one of the most densely populated places in the world; they have an overall density of 6, 100 people per square kilometer.
The official languages of Hong Kong are both Cantonese and English. Cantonese is the most common language spoken there; it is the language most spoken by the Chinese living there. English is also widely spoken, with a third of the population speaking it. Needed in a growing economy, are educated workers and the Hong Kong government is clearly taking care of this. The literacy rate in Hong Kong is a whooping 92 % of its population. All children between the ages of six to fifth teen must be a full time student, according to the law.
After they were 15, 90 percent of them continue school and complete high school. Hong Kong, along with a lot of other Asian nations, has an unstable economy. Hong Kong has a GDP of 172 billion dollars and it is estimated to go down - 4 %. Stock market and property prices are expected to decline by 50 percent. Unemployment is also going up, it was 2. 2 percent in 1997 to 5 percent in 1998. Hong Kong has virtually no natural resources so they have been very dependent on a strong manufacturing division.
The lack of natural resources was also made up with their abundant amount of foreign trade. Growth rebounded to more than 5. 1 % in 1991 and to 6. 1 % in 1993 and continued to grow steadily until the first quarter of 1998, when Hong Kong experienced negative growth for the first time since 1984, with declines in construction, retail sales and tourism. Recently, Hong Kong's service division has become more important than the manufacturing sector and with the recent staggering drop in tourism in Hong Kong, the economy has suffered. The history of Hong Kong first started in 1840 with beginning of the Opium War. This was the start of a turbulent and rocky past for the island of Hong Kong.
After the Opium War ended and the British took over the main island, they got ambitious and stuck again. This was the start of the second Opium War, with the French and the British working together to easily defeat the Chinese army. The British then gained the Kowloon Peninsula and afterwards they leased the New Territories, widening the area of Hong Kong. Under the British, the Hong Kong people enjoyed a huge amount of rights that the people living on Mainland China did not. In 1983, in a possibility of keeping Hong Kong successful, China ignited the Sino-British talks. These talks resulted in the Joint Declaration.
The Joint Declaration declared that the future government of Hong Kong would be a joint government of both British and Chinese members, and Hong Kong would now be a Special Administrative Region. This region would live under Basic Law, their own mini-constitution. Although Hong Kong has figured out their political direction, their economy hasnt. Recently, the economy has plummeted. The stock has been projected to drop as much as 50 percent. The gross domestic product is also expected to decline by four percent.
The Hong Kong economy is in a questionable position. Hong Kong has had a rocky past and has a questionable future with the survival of the Special Administration Region is uncertain.
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