Hong Kong, China & Britain??

~~ Interesting World History ~~
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From 1842 to 1997 Hong Kong, China was known as: 'British Hong Kong'
Amazing considering they're appx 6,000 miles apart

Hong Kong includes 426 square miles of territory in the South China Sea. Hong Kong was first incorporated into China in 243 BC, during the Warring States period and as the Qin state was beginning to grow in power. It remained almost constantly under Chinese control for the next 2,000 years. Today one of the most densely occupied and economically independent parts of the world and for decades was ruled by Britain.

In 1842, under British Queen Victoria's expansionist rule, Hong Kong became known as British Hong Kong. On June 9, 1898, the British brokered a ninety-nine year lease agreement for the use of Hong Kong after China lost a series of wars fought over the British trade in tea and opium. The lease came about as a result of wars over trade imbalances, opium and the shifting power of Queen Victoria's British empire.

In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang negotiated the underlying plan for the lease to end, such that Hong Kong would remain a semi-autonomous region for a 50-year period after the lease ended. 

After the agreement, Britain began to implement a broader level of democracy in Hong Kong. The first democratic government in Hong Kong was formed in the late 1980s, consisting of functional constituencies and direct elections. While the People's Republic of China rejected the democratization of Hong Kong, the region had become enormously lucrative. Hong Kong only became a major metropolis after the British possession, and during the 150+ years of the occupation, the city had grown and thrived.

 The stability of those changes became doubtful after the Tiananmen Square incident (Beijing, China, June 3–4, 1989) when an undetermined number of protesting students were massacred. Half a million people in Hong Kong went on marches to protest. 

​On July 1, 1997, the event that has been dreaded and anticipated by the residents of Hong Kong, Chinese, English and world came. The government of Great Britain transferred control of British Hong Kong and the surrounding territories back to the People's Republic of China.  More here