Hong Kong Returns: British Rule Ends After 150 Years
The midnight handover ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention Centre marked the end of 156 years of British colonial rule and the beginning of an experiment unprecedented in modern geopolitics: one country, two systems. Chris Patten, the last British governor, sailed away on the Royal Yacht Britannia while Chinese troops crossed the border before dawn. Over the previous decade, roughly 500,000 Hong Kong residents had emigrated, fearing Beijing would dismantle their legal protections, free press, and independent judiciary. The handover transformed a fishing village that the British had seized during the Opium War into the world's most significant test case for whether capitalism and authoritarianism could coexist under one flag.
July 1, 1997
29 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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