TNAG-1255-FCO40-1588-Third-countries-and-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 28

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Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

29th Annual Conference: Nairobi: 23 October

Brief No:

FUTURE OF HONG KONG

―

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