In 1997, Britain returned Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong, ceded to Britain by China in 1842, later along with the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories, was to be British Territory “in perpetuity”. The New Territories had been leased for 99 years, from 1898. Hong Kong could not exist without the New Territories, so, at the end of the lease of the New Territories in 1997, Britain surrendered Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). At the time of that surrend…
