TNAG-1259-FCO40-1599-The-Future-of-Hong-Kong---special-study-by-FCO--August-1982--1983 — Page 59

HONG KONG STUDY

ANNEX G

SECRET

CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION OF HONG KONG

Amended

4.8.

27/4

1.

Present Situation

Hong Kong is

fa

part of Her Majestyle dominions;

(b)

a British possession;

(e) a colony~

(d)

a Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom.

UK Sovereignty and Chinese claims

2.

has

The United Kingdom possesses sovereignty over the

island of Hong Kong and the tip of the Kowloon peninsula,

these areas having been ceded by China to the United Kingdom

by the Treaties of 1842 and 1860. The PRC also claim

sovereignty over these areas on the ground that the two

Treaties were unequal treaties imposed by force but the UK

has not admitted the claim. The UK possesses the New

Territories, which comprise the rest of the colony, under

an international lease for a term of 99 years expiring on

30 June 1997 granted by the Convention of 1898, and under

the Order in Council of that year the New Territories are

treated as part and parcel of the colony during the period

SECRET

/of