TNAG-2791-FCO40-4030-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China.-With-maps-1993 — Page 126

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other? Do the differences in culture and politics create

obstacles to cooperation? Do their different approaches to

negotiations give rise to impediments? (2) Does the way the

negotiations have been structured or organised give rise to

problems? for example, what significance should be attached to

the absence of Hong Kong representation in the negotiations? (3)

Does the relative thinness of the bureaucratic involvement in the

negotiations and the narrowness of the lines of political

authority of each side contribute to

to the difficulties? The

article will conclude with an assessment of the significance of

the dispute begun by the Patten proposals and

and a

a view of the

prospects ahead. But first it will review briefly the history of

the negotiations.

A Brief Historical Overview

Britain acquired Hong Kong Island in perpetuity by the

Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The southern part of the Kowloon

Peninsula and Stonecutters Island were further ceded to Britain

by the first Convention of Peking 19 years later. The rest of the

territory was ceded to Britain for 99 years from 1 July 1898 by

the second Convention of Peking. Between 1941 and 1945 the whole

territory was occupied by the Japanese and the British government

resisted American pressure to return Hong Kong to the then

Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek despite having ceded other

extraterritorial rights in China in 1943. In 1949 Mao's forces