Grandad
'Britain no longer any responsibility for Hong Kong. That responsibility is now in the hands of the Hong Kong legislating Authority and the Chinese Government.
The UK government should stay out of that dispute and stop treating those Chinese authorities in terms similar to them being subjects of Imperialist Britain at its height.'
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The fact the British held a 99 year lease signed with the Qing Empire ( Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory), which as we know ended in 1997, lead to the' 'Handover ' of power to Cina but in 1985 the British Government and China had signed ' The Sino-British Joint Declaration and was registered by the People's Republic of China and United Kingdom governments at the United Nations on 12 June 1985 which states:-
' In accordance with the "One country, two systems" principle agreed between the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China, the socialist system of the People's Republic of China would not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and Hong Kong's previous capitalist and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years. This would have left Hong Kong unchanged until 2047.'
The Joint Declaration provided that these basic policies should be stipulated in the Hong Kong Basic Law'
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So it is felt by many that the British Government as Co Signees of the ' The Sino-British Joint Declaration' do have a responsibility for Hong Kong, as do the United Nations upto 2047. At least to speak out on behalf of the Hong Kong people to whom we had negotiated the deal with China. China should be the ones to uphold their end of the deal under ' The Sino-British Joint Declaration' as the British Government have.
As for the continual point made re the British Colonial Empire / Imperialism and Hong Kong there is hardly ever recognition that Hong Kong was in indeed ' leased out' to the British Government but the Qing Empire ' leased out' it's territories to many countries around the same period the British Government ' leased.' Hong Kong.
A lot of people continually use the ' leasing' of Hong Kong as a perverbial batton to beat the British Government over the head with in their constant indignation that the British were and ' still are' to date Imperialistic Swine and only the British are to blaim for all the ills of the world and colonised overseas territories.