IN CONFIDENCE
SECTION 1: CONSTITUTIONAL AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND
Hong Kong consists of:
1.1
(a)
(b)
(c)
Hong Kong Island, ceded by China in perpetuity by the
Treaty of Nanking (1842);
the Kowloon peninsula and Stonecutters' Island,
similarly ceded in 1860 by the First Convention of
Peking; and
the New Territories, which China 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.
1.2 Hong Kong is a Dependent Territory and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is responsible to Parliament for its government. The Territory is administered by a Governor, with the help of an Executive Council and a Legislative Council.
1.3
1
The Governor, who represents the Crown, is the head of
government and has the power to make laws (called "ordinances") for the "peace, order and good government" of Hong Kong. His authority derives from the Letters Patent and the Royal Instructio... The Crown reserves the power to disallow ordinances enacted in Hong Kong and to legislate for the Territory by Order in Council. In practice, no post-war British Government has exercised this power. English common law and the rules of equity are in force in Hong Kong, extended and modified as necessary by local legislation.
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IN CONFIDENCE