Britain returns Hong Kong to China

"It is not a question of human rights. It is a question about getting the right balance between order of social stability on one side and the rights of individuals on the other."
Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa

The British colony of Hong Kong disappeared forever on July 1, when the economically booming territory was returned to Beijing's control.

The formal handover went off without a hitch, but it prompted persistent concerns about whether China would squelch the human rights of Hong Kong's 6.4 million people.

The transfer of power occurred under the Joint Declaration, an agreement about Hong Kong's future reached between Britain and China in 1984.

Britain began taking control of the area in 1842, after the First Opium War with China. Its 99-year lease on a portion of Hong Kong expired in 1997.

China pledged to respect Hong Kong's existing laws and individual rights for 50 years under what it called a "one country, two systems" approach.

Still, no sooner was Britain's flag lowered and China's flag raised than the new administrators replaced Hong Kong's freely elected legislature with an appointed Provisional Legislature.

They also promised new elections next May, but the appointed legislature has issued strict new guidelines that will sharply curtail the number of eligible voters.

Then there's the wiggle room found in the legalese of the Joint Declaration. For example, it says Beijing will maintain Hong Kong laws "save for any that contravene the Basic Law." China has, in the past, interpreted laws to justify its political ends in a way found questionable by outsiders.

Some observers also worry the Hong Kong handover encourages China to push for control in Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province. Beijing has already suggested the "one country, two systems" approach could work for the island. Taiwan only wants reunification under a democratic system.