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On this episode of China Uncensored,
no backsies in the Hong Kong handover to China.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored
I'm your host Chris Chappell.
Well, you asked for it, so here it is.
The reason why the British gave Hong Kong back to China
those 20 years ago.
Hong Kong today is under a weird policy called
'One country Two systems',
where even though it's a part of China,
it's governed separately, mostly.
So you have freedoms in Hong Kong
that could land you in a labor camp in the rest of China.
So why does the People's Republic of China
have these two contradictory systems of government.
And why did Great Britain give Hong Kong back to China in the first place
Well, once upon a time,
everyone wanted stuff that was made in China
because no one made better quality stuff than China.
But China didn't really want any of the cheap junk made by other countries
like say Great Britain, which sucked for them.
But then, in the early 1800s,
the British figured out something everyone wanted...
drugs, specifically ***.
The Chinese tried to just say no to drugs
and threw a bunch of *** into the water.
And as an American,
I guess there's something about British goods
that just make people want to throw them in the water.
Anyway,
the Chinese destruction of *** led to the First *** War
and the British won Hong Kong island.
The British had so much fun.
A few years later,
they decided to have the Second *** War.
And the British won Kowloon.
Then, China lost a war with Japan,
and the British thought: 'what the heck why not just grab some more land?'
as the British liked to do it in those days.
And that's how the British Empire ended up with the New Territories.
This time, though
they technically only leased the land for 99 years
as a concession to the Chinese.
99-year leases were a standard way of owning property in Great Britain.
So they probably assumed a 99-year lease really meant sort of forever.
Kind of like the way teenagers borrow money from their parents.
Do parents really expect to get the money back?
Little could the British have imagined
that a future government of China would insist
that the 99 year lease should expire
with no option for renewal
on July 1st 1997.
So for more than a hundred years,
the British built up Hong Kong's industry and commerce.
It eventually became a major financial hub in Asia.
The quality of living was completely different from mainland China
which had been seized by communist rule.
But by that point in history,
owning colonies overseas was getting
less and less fashionable.
According to a cache of colonial records
the British government declassified in 2014,
the Brits were mulling granting Hong Kong
self-governance in the 1950s.
But, the Chinese Communist Party did not like the idea of a democracy on their border.
So they sent a threatening message to Britain
that they would not: 'hesitate to take positive action
to have Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories liberated
from the oppression of self-governance.
In other words,
the CCP threatened to invade Hong Kong
if the British made it democratic.
But at the same time,
the Communist Party wanted the Brits to stay and rule.
So China could use Hong Kong
to trade and contact people of other countries and obtain materials.
So the best thing the British could do for Hong Kong at the time was...
continue to colonize them.
Awkward!
And the Communist Party was perfectly happy
to let the British build Hong Kong
into the financial hub of Asia.
Because ultimately, the Communist Party had a plan,
to take Hong Kong in 1997.
But wait a minute, you say.
It was only the New Territories that were on lease.
Britain would still get to keep Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, right?
Well, here's the thing.
If the British had insisted on keeping Hong Kong Island and Kowloon,
the Communist Party could just make life extremely difficult for the people there.
Like by shutting off their water.
Because almost all the water comes from China and the New Territories.
So rather than let its people die of thirst
or terrible BO,
the British were forced to deal with the reality
that when the lease to the New Territories was up,
they'd have to give up Hong Kong and Kowloon as well.
Plus, they didn't want to fight the People's Liberation Army.
But the British told the people of Hong Kong:
'Don't worry, it'll totally be fine.
The Chinese Communist Party will respect your freedoms.'
It's like, when you tell your kids you're going to Disneyland,
but really you're taking them to the dentist.
The dentist from the Little Shop of Horrors.
But wait,
didn't many of the colonies that belong to the former British Empire
get to become independent?
Like Fiji and the Bahamas and like 50 others?
Why was the only option for Hong Kong to revert to Chinese rule?
Because of a very very sneaky move by the CCP.
In 1971, the United Nations had the great idea,
to recognize the People's Republic of China,
and not the Republic of China in Taiwan,
as the one true China.
And one of the first things
that the new Chinese ambassador to UN did
was to send this letter to the United Nations Special Committee
on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and People.
Okay, I know this sounds boring but trust me,
it's about to get really interesting.
The letter said that Hong Kong and Macau
should not be considered colonies at all.
Nope, they're just part of Chinese territory
occupied by the British and Portuguese.
Nothing to see here.
And the select Committee decided that was okay with them,
Buried in paragraph 183 on page 64 of volume I
of their five volumes thousand plus page annual report,
the Committee removed Hong Kong and Macau
from the list of non-self-governing territories.
In a separate document,
the committee referenced China's letter
as the direct reason for their decision.
Why was this a big deal?
Well, later in 1972,
the UN adopted Resolution 2908,
which was a resolution largely about supporting decolonization.
Part of the resolution was approving the Special Committees report.
You know, the one there was over a thousand pages long
then I'm sure everyone definitely read.
Just like you thoroughly review the terms and conditions on your smartphone
every time they change
and carefully consider whether to agree to them.
No way you just hit accept it
and move on with your day
that would be irresponsible.
The Resolution passed ninety nine to five.
Basically, the Chinese ambassador to the UN
buried an obscure line in a long document,
so that when the UN members voted to support
the independence of colonized people worldwide,
Hong Kong and Macau were no longer on the list.
This technicality completely changed the destiny of Hong Kong.
Because they no longer had the legal right under the United Nations
to be independent.
So with this legal manipulation,
plus threats to cut off the water supply,
the British had no choice but to hand over Hong Kong to China.
In 1982,
the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Beijing
and began negotiations over the future of Hong Kong.
At first, the British hoped that
even if they had to legally give Hong Kong back to China,
they could still be involved in administering the territory.
if the Chinese wanted.
To which the Chinese side said: 'nope'.
They made it clear
that the Communist Party's sovereignty over Hong Kong
was the most important thing.
After two years of negotiation,
the Sino-British joint declaration was signed in 1984,
establishing the handover of Hong Kong
and the One country, Two systems' model.
You know who weren't part of the negotiations?
The people of Hong Kong.
And many were justifiably upset about it.
To Britain's credit though,
before they were forced to leave Hong Kong,
they tried to protect many of Hong Kong's freedoms.
The last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten
even expanded the legislative elections to make them more democratic.
The Chinese Communist Party condemned Patten for that
and called him a liar, snake, *** and...
tango dancer,
presumably not all at once.
And so in 1997,
the British left Hong Kong.
And the rest is history.
But for those of you worried about the future of Hong Kong
after our last episode on
what's happened in the last 20 years under the Chinese Communist Party's rule,
don't worry.
It turns out, we were completely wrong.
Hong Kong is just as great as it used to be.
According to this news article
in the respected British newspaper
The Telegraph,
an article that just happened to be written by
China's ambassador to the United Kingdom.
And as we now know from this episode,
Chinese ambassadors are very trustworthy.
So what do you think of China's interesting way of getting Hong Kong?
Leave your comments below.
And remember, we can't keep making China Uncensored
without support from viewers like you.
And where else would you get to see obscure UN documents from 45 years ago?
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Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again I'm your host Chris Chappell.
See you next time.