TNAG-1332-FCO40-1762-Future-of-Hong-Kong-White-Paper-on-the-Joint-Declaration-1984 — Page 175

TREATIES

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3.

were

Britain acquired the Crown colony of Hong Kong through three treaties concluded with the then Chinese Government during the nineteenth century: the Treaty of Nanking, signed in 1842 and ratified in 1843 under which Hong Kong Island was ceded in perpetuity: the Convention of Peking in 1860 under which the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island ceded in perpetuity: and the Convention of 1898 under which the New Territories (comprising 92% of the total surface area of the territory) were leased to Britain for 99 years from 1 July 1898. It was the fact that the New Territories

the New Territories are subject to a lease with a fixed expiry date which lay behind the decision by Her Majesty's Government to seek to enter negotiations with the Government of the People's Republic of China (referred to hereafter as "The Chinese Government") on Hong Kong's future.

be

4. The attitude of the Chinese Government towards the treaties has been clearly stated: it is that Hong Kong and Macau "belonged to the category of unequal treaties left over by history"; that they should be settled peacefully through negotiations when conditions were ripe; and that pending a settlement the status quo should maintained. The Chinese Government also made its view of Hong Kong's status clear in a letter to the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation in March 1972. This argued that the question of Hong Kong was a matter of China's sovereign right and did not fall within the ordinary category of colonial treaties and should not be included in the list of territories covered by the Declaration the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

on

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