TNAG-1332-FCO40-1762-Future-of-Hong-Kong-White-Paper-on-the-Joint-Declaration-1984 — Page 204

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TREATIES

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3. 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 were

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 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.

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 be

maintained. The Chinese Government also made its view of Hong

Kong's status clear in a

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 on

the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

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