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China's rocky relationship with Hong Kong: 10 key moments

To help understand how China's relationship with Hong Kong has changed through its evolution from British rule to special administrative region, here are 10 key moments:

Hong Kong and China together again - 1997

  • By Meredith Bennett-Smith Contributor

At midnight on July 1, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng, together with Britain’s Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair, presided over a somber ceremony effectively ending 156 years of British colonial rule.

Loyal Communist Party members, meanwhile, counted down to the takeover in Tianmen Square, cheering as huge television screens ticked down the seconds to midnight. In a symbolic gesture, British flags and crests were replaced with Chinese insignia. But much stayed the same in Hong Kong: English common law remained in place and motorists continued to drive on the left hand side of the road.

Beijing moved quickly to replace the Legislative Council of Hong Kong with the appointed council, and installed Hong Kong’s first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa.

At his swearing-in ceremony, the handpicked Mr. Tung, a former shipping executive with connections to the mainland, pledged to value Hong Kong’s newfound “empowerment." "We will exercise our powers prudently and responsibly,” he said. “Hong Kong and China are whole again.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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