TNAG-2038-FCO40-2902-Ministerial-visits-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 28

HONG KONG BACKGROUND BRIEF: DECEMBER 1990

HONG KONG: COUNTRY GENERAL

1.

Hong Kong consists of:

(a)

(b)

Hong Kong Island, ceded by China by the Treaty of

Nanking (1842);

The Kowloon peninsula and Stonecutters' Island,

ceded in 1860 by the First Convention of Peking;

and

(c) 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 over 5.5 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.

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. As Hong Kong is a

dependent territory, there is no British Embassy there.

British trade interests are dealt with by the British Trade

Commission, which also covers trade with Macao.

within the Commission is a China Trade Unit which is

responsible for trade with China through Hong Kong, and

also, under the supervision of the British Embassy in Peking, for promoting British trade with the provinces of

southern China.

Included

3.

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

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