TNAG-1157-FCO40-1437-Visits-by-FCO-Ministers-to-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 140

LORD BELSTEAD'S VISIT TO HONG KONG : 6 TO 10 DECEMBER 1982

BRIEF NO.16: HONG KONG BACKGROUND BRIEF

CONSTITUTIONAL AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND

1.1

Hong Kong consists of:

(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 5.2 million,

of whom 98% are Chinese.

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

His

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. authority derives from the Letters Patent and the Royal

Instructions. 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.

/1.4