HONG KONG BACKGROUND BRIEF: AUGUST 1990
HONG KONG: COUNTRY GENERAL
1.
Hong Kong consists of:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Hong Kong Island, ceded by China by the Treaty of Nanking (1842);
The Kowloon peninsula and Stonecutters' Island, 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 populationo f over 5.5 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.
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. As Hong Kong is a dependent territory, there is no British Embassy there. British trade interests are dealt with by the British Trade Commission, which also covers trade with Macao. Included
within the Commission is a China Trade Unit which is
responsible for trade with China through Hong Kong, and
also, under the supervision of the British Embassy in Peking, for promoting British trade with the provinces of
southern China.
3. 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
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