after the british empire defeated china in the opium wars, china was forced to give up hong kong to the british after signing unequal treaties that favored british interests. they had to give up control of hong kong island in 1842, kowloon peninsula in 1860, and were made to lease new territories for a period of 99 years in 1898. in the 1980s, when its lease of new territories was nearly over, the united kingdom sought to renew its lease of new territories. however, china refused to renew the lease. since new territories had half of hong kong's people and most of its water supply, having kowloon and hong kong island without new territories would have ruined hong kong's economy. reluctantly, britain decided in 1984 to begin talks on giving hong kong back in 1984. in 1988, china agreed to uphold basic law, which would make hong kong into an sar when it gets returned to china, and in 1997, hong kong was returned to the prc.