1984 British-Chinese treaty regarding the transfer of Hong Kong
The Sino-British Joint Declaration was a treaty between the governments of the United Kingdom and People's Republic of China signed in 1984 setting the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance of the territory after 1 July 1997.
Hong Kong had been a colony of the British Empire since 1842 after the First Opium War and its territory was expanded on two occasions; first 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. The date of the handover in 1997 marked the end of this lease.
The Chinese government declared in the treaty its basic policies for governing Hong Kong after the transfer. A special administrative region would be established in the territory that would be self-governing with a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign affairs and defence. Hong Kong would maintain its existing governing and economic systems separate from that of mainland China under the principle of "one country, two systems". This blueprint would be elaborated on in the Hong Kong Basic Law (the post-handover regional constitution) and the central government's policies for the territory were to remain unchanged for a period of 50 years after 1997.
China has stated since 2014 that it considers the treaty to be spent with no further legal effect, while the United Kingdom maintains that the document remains binding in operation. Following China's 2020 imposition of national security legislation on Hong Kong and a 2021 National People's Congress decision to approve a rework of local election laws that reduces the number of regional legislature seats elected by the public, the UK has declared China as being in a "state of ongoing non-compliance" with the Joint Declaration.
China deemed the document expired and invalid as of 30 June 1997, while the UK continues to believe that it remains valid and effective.
Background.
Phases of colonial expansion.
Hong Kong became a British colony in 1842 after the Qing dynasty's defeat in the First Opium War. The territory initially consisted only of Hong Kong Island and was expanded to include Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island in 1860 after another Qing loss in the Second Opium War.
After this addition, the British government resisted calls by colonial officials and merchants for further expansion into China, deciding to cease territorial acquisitions in the area. However, as Germany, Japan, and Russia coerced China into granting concessions in the late 1890s, Britain considered another expansion of Hong Kong to bolster the colony's defence against attack from these other great powers. When France obtained a lease for Guangzhouwan, only away from Hong Kong, Britain entered into negotiations with the Qing to acquire the New Territories as a compensatory concession in 1898. The British negotiator considered the 99-year lease term to be sufficiently suggestive that the ceded area would be a permanent cession, which was granted rent-free.
Potential lease renegotiations.
Hong Kong Governor Frederick Lugard first proposed renegotiating the lease as a formal cession in 1909 in return for restoring Weihaiwei to China. Although the Colonial and Foreign Offices considered this, the plan was never brought to the Chinese government before Weihaiwei was transferred to the Republic of China in 1930. Alternate plans that involved offering China a substantial loan and settling land disputes on the Burmese border were suggested, but these ideas similarly did not progress past discussion. The start of the Second World War and ensuing Japanese occupation of Hong Kong stifled further debate on obtaining a cession. The British government initially prepared for the possibility of having to relinquish Hong Kong after the war, but moved towards retaining the colony over the course of the conflict. Hong Kong returned to British control in 1945.
In the immediate post-war period, the Nationalist government continued this dialogue with the British about the future of Hong Kong, which included discussions of a full retrocession and proposals of turning the colony into an international city. However, communist victory in the Chinese Civil War made a transfer of Hong Kong to the Nationalists an increasingly unlikely scenario, and the status quo was maintained.
Coexistence with the People's Republic.
Although communist troops marched up to the border with Hong Kong, they did not try to forcefully take the colony. Initial engagement between the colonial and new Chinese authorities were largely friendly and cooperative. While it was clear that the long-term goal of the communists was to absorb the territory, they chose to take no action on the issue in the near-term. The Chinese were content with the political status of the colony for the time being so long as no efforts were made to introduce democratic development in the territory; they were simply hostile to the idea of a potentially independent Hong Kong. In 1972, China successfully petitioned the United Nations to remove Hong Kong from its list of non-self-governing territories, and declared that the colony was a "Chinese territory under British administration". The United Kingdom did not raise any objections to this and the local population did not think the move was significant, but the implication of this change was that Communist China alone would determine the territory's future, excluding the people of Hong Kong.
Post-war Hong Kong experienced rapid economic growth through the 1950s as it industrialised into a manufacturing-based export economy. This development continued through the following decades bolstered by a strong trading network, robust banking and financial systems, and an educated and growing workforce supplemented by continuing immigration from mainland China. As the Cultural Revolution embroiled mainland China beginning in 1966, local communists in Hong Kong started a series of demonstrations against colonial rule that escalated into the 1967 Hong Kong riots. However, the disturbances never gained local support and the subsequent restoration of public order conversely resulted in the colonial government achieving increased popularity among the territory's residents. By the late 1970s, Hong Kong had become one of the largest trading ports and financial centres in the world.
Approaching deadline.
Local investors began expressing their concern in the mid-1970s over the long-term viability of continued real estate investment. The colonial government could not legally grant new land leases in the New Territories past 1997 and needed to resolve the uncertainty with the Chinese government. During an official visit to Beijing in March 1979, Governor Murray MacLehose raised the issue with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping. MacLehose suggested setting aside the 1997 date for land leases and replacing those contracts with ones that were valid for as long as British administration continued in the colony. Deng rejected this suggestion, but he informed the governor that while sovereignty over Hong Kong belonged to China, the territory held a special status that would continue to be respected. MacLehose informed the public that further investment would be safe. Market reaction was optimistic; stock valuations rose and further investment in real estate boosted the value of Hong Kong's land to the highest in the world.
Just before the start of formal negotiations with China over Hong Kong, Parliament enacted a major reform of British nationality law – the British Nationality Act 1981. Prior to the passage of this Act, all citizens of the British Empire (including Hongkongers) held a common nationality. Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKCs) previously had the unrestricted right to enter and live in the UK until 1962, although non-white immigration was systemically discouraged. Immigration from the colonies and other Commonwealth countries was gradually restricted by Parliament from 1962 to 1971 amid decolonisation, when British subjects originating from outside of the British Islands first had immigration controls imposed on them when entering the UK. The 1981 Act reclassified CUKCs into different nationality groups based on their ancestry and birthplace, and the vast majority of British subjects in Hong Kong became British Dependent Territories citizens (BDTCs) with right of abode only in Hong Kong. Only those reclassified as British citizens held an automatic right to live in the United Kingdom.
Negotiations.
Formal negotiations began in September 1982 with the arrival of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Hong Kong Governor Edward Youde in Beijing to meet with Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. In the initial phase of negotiations from October 1982 to June 1983, the main point of contention was the issue of sovereignty.
The goals of the Chinese government were made clear from the beginning of the process. China would resume both sovereignty and administration over Hong Kong in 1997. It would do this by force if necessary, but preferred to keep the territory's socioeconomic climate stable to maximize the economic benefits it could reap from the transfer. Its proposed plan was to establish a special administrative region in the territory that would be governed by local residents and to maintain the existing structures of government and economy in place for as long as 50 years. Constitutional arrangements had already been made to implement this plan and the Chinese would not accept anything less than a full reversion of Hong Kong.
Sovereignty after 1997.
During her first visit to Beijing, Thatcher asserted the continuing validity of British treaty rights for the sovereignty of Hong Kong. The British began negotiations believing that they could secure an extension of the New Territories lease while retaining sovereignty of the ceded areas. Although the UK had just successfully defended its hold on the Falkland Islands in a war against Argentina, Hong Kong's proximity to mainland China made a military defence of the territory impossible. Thatcher later recounted that Deng had told her directly "I could walk in and take the whole lot this afternoon", to which she replied, "There is nothing I could do to stop you, but the eyes of the world would now know what China is like."
The Chinese pushed back against the assertion of sovereignty rights and insisted that it was not bound by the 19th-century unequal treaties that ceded Hong Kong to the UK. Even if the two sides had agreed on the binding nature of the Treaty of Nanking and Convention of Peking, the vast majority of the colony's land still would have reverted to China at the conclusion of the New Territories lease. Because most of the territory's industry was developed there, separating the leased area and returning only that part of the colony to China was economically and logistically infeasible. Negotiations were stalled until Britain conceded that it would relinquish sovereignty over the entire territory.
British attempt to extend administration.
In the second phase of negotiations, the British attempted to negotiate an extension of their administration in Hong Kong past 1997 in exchange for their acknowledgement of Chinese sovereignty. This was again soundly rejected by the Chinese as unacceptable. The continued stalled state of negotiations precipitated a drop in investor confidence, causing a sharp decline in local property values that culminated with the crash of the Hong Kong dollar's value on Black Saturday in September 1983.
The talks were entirely conducted without meaningful input from the people of Hong Kong. Early in the process, British officials had used the analogy of a "three-legged stool" to describe a scenario where Hong Kong was party to the negotiations with the United Kingdom and China. The Chinese government dismissed this idea, claiming that it already represented the interests of the people of Hong Kong. Local residents were apprehensive about the prospect of being handed over to Chinese rule and overwhelmingly preferred that Hong Kong remain a British territory; contemporary opinion polls show that 85 per cent of residents favoured this option. The Foreign Office rejected holding a general referendum on the future of the colony due to vehement opposition from the Chinese and because it assumed that educating the public on the complexity of the issue would be too difficult. Although the Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils had repeatedly petitioned the British negotiators to insist on continued administration for as long as possible, they were ultimately unsuccessful. By November 1983, the British accepted that they would have no further authority over Hong Kong after 1997.
Nationality and the Joint Liaison Group.
Negotiations in 1984 centred on nationality and the role of the Joint Liaison Group. British negotiators and Hong Kong Executive Council members wanted to ensure the continued status of Hongkongers as British Dependent Territories citizens (BDTCs) after the transfer of sovereignty, but the Chinese would not