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Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
29th Annual Conference: Nairobi: 23 October
Brief No:
FUTURE OF HONG KONG
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5 November
Hong Kong's Constitutional and Political Background
1. The British Dependent Territory of Hong Kong
consists of:
(a) Hong Kong Island, ceded by China in perpetuity by
the Treaty of Nanking (1842);
(b) the Kowloon peninsula and Stonecutters' Island,
similarly ceded in 1860 by the First Convention of Peking; and
(c) the New Territories, leased to Britain for 99
years in 1898 by the Second Convention of Peking.
Its total land area is 1,064 square kilometres and it has a population of 5.3 million, of whom 98% are
Chinese. The New Territories account for approximately 92% of Hong Kong's total area and more than 50% of its
total population.
The Future of Hong Kong
2. The Chinese consider the Treaties to be 'unequal treaties' forced on China during a period of iternal weakness. They do not, therefore, recognise them. Hitherto, however, they have regarded Hong Kong as a
problem left over from history, to be settled when the time is right, and have been content to leave things as