...........................
............................................................................................................................
The Hong Kong Chinese always reckoned this British Crown Colony to be a "three-legged stool," with one leg in Beijing, another in London, and the third in Hong Kong. This idea immediately coshed when Hong Kong returned to its motherland, China on July 1st 1997. But that metaphor still suggests Hong Kong’s historically unique balancing act. If one leg is chopped off just a wee bit, the stool is askew. If the legs are of even more unequal length , the stool tilts crazily and doesn’t fullfill its original and stabilizing function. And if a leg is accidentally broken or deliberately lopped off, it will topple. From the moment of its controvesial 19th century birth, Hong Kong has been at centre-ring, delicately resting its fate on that improbable sets of legs. This fragile tripod arrangement officially began on January 20, 1841, when Britain’s sole remaining plenipotentiary in China Trade Superintendent Captain Charles Elliot RN, annexed Hong Kong Island on his own volition, and by force of arms, to obtain trade concessions, to recover compensation for thousands of chests of British opium confiscated earlier at Canton and to redeem a bent British pride. Six days later, Commodore Sir J. Gordon Bremer led a British naval force onto Possession Point for the ritual planting of Her Majesty’s flag.
This annexation was instantly
unpopular with higher-ups in London and Beijing, so much
so that both Elliot and his Chinese counterpart Kishen,
was reprimanded by their superiors and given huge boots
in their lower-ranking bums. Kishen, was roundly taken to
task by his superiors for capitulating and giving away a
bit of the Middle Kingdom to red-bearded British
barbarians. He bowed, withdrew into his ropes and was
banished to Tibet. Elliot was recalled to Whitehall , and
Sir Henry Pottinger was appointed the first governor .
| 1905: | Dr. Sun Yat-sen leads an anti-Manchu movement that aims to topples the Dowager Empress' Ching Dynasty. Japan triumphs in the Russo-Japanese War. |
| 1914: | Despite an exodus of 60,000 Chinese fearing an attack on the colony after the World War I, Hong Kong's population begins its evermore claustrophobic climb - from 530,000 in 1916, 725,000 in 1925 and 1.6 million by 1941. |
| 1922: | Hong Kong experiences its first seamen's strike. China, meanwhile, had already coped with its first general strike two years earlier when Manchurian Railway workers quit their jobs. Like the strikes in China, Hong Kong's are directed against foreigners and inequitable treaties. |
| 1927: | General Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang troops escalate their Nationalist campaign to rid the country of Communists. The Chinese Civil War divides the country. |
| 1928: | Mao Tse-tung establishes his first guerilla base. The Japanese occupy Manchuria in 1931 and the following year the Communists declare war on them. |
| 1935: | Mao gains control of the Communist Party and the following year Chiang Kai-shek is kidnapped during what becomes known as the Sian Incident. |
| 1937: | The Sino-Japanese War erupts, so Kuomintang and Communist armies "unite" temporarily to flight a common foreign enemy. |
| 1941: | On December 8, the Japanese Imperial Fleet attacks Pearl Harbour and commits American to an other War.As Hong Kong Europeans are herded into Stanley Fort, Japan recognise Portugal's neutrality and tiny Macau become the only "neutral pocket" in China. Macau becomes a refugee for escapees who successfully run through Japan's military gauntlet. |
| 1945: | On August 6, an American atom bomb drops on Hiroshima. Sir Cecil Harcourt steams into "Fragrant Harbour" at the head of the British fleet to re-establish Her Majesty presence in the war-ravaged British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. |
| 1946: | The Bretton Woods Arrangement is signed, thereby forbidding the importation of gold for private purposes. Britian signs,Portugal does not.Thus Macau-to Hong Kong gold smuggling operation which lasts until 1974 when Hong Kong abolishes a law which requires special licenses to import gold. Tiny Macau becomes one of the world's greatest importers of gold. China's civil war rages on. |
| 1948: | Hong Kong's first skyjacking took place on July 16 as a Macau Airways catalina flying boat en route to Macau from the colony is taken. The pilot was shot and the plane crashed, killing all but one of the 27 passengers and crew. |
| 1949: | Routed Kuomintang forces flee to Taiwan. Communist Chinese troops stops at the British border and a heavy Red Bamboo Curtain seals off the Middle Kingdom. While China's civil war was being fought, Hong Kong's refugee population swelled. |
| 1952: | In March, riots break out in Kowloon when government refuses the entry of a Canton mission. In Macau, waves of immigrants threaten to swamp the tiny territory. Macau signs an agreement with China pledging co-opeartion with the Communist regime. |
| 1953: | On Christmas Day, Hong Kong's Shek Kip Mei squatter area burst into flames leaving 53,000 homeless. After the debris is cleared on Boxing Day, Hong Kong begins an emergency housing programme. |
| 1954: | Dien Bien Phu falls and the French lose Vietnam. A conference in Geneva is called to guarantee Indochina's neutrality and John Foster Dulles, the American Secretary of State, snubs Chinese Prime Minister Chou En-lai by refusing to shake hands. |
| 1955: | China, in a show of force, blocks Macau's plan for a 400th birthday celebration, in a genuflection to diplomacy China later fees American prisoners-of-war captured during the Korean War. |
| 1956: | Another wave of immigrants hits the colony. Hong Kong gets cable television in time to catch some of this year's political and military action. |
| 1962: | Another wave of immigrants crosses the border, but they are shunted back as Chinese border troops herd them towards Hong Kong while colonial forces try desperately to keep them out. The deluge stops as quickly as it began -when Mao orders it a stop. |
| 1964: | Legal gambling begin at Macau, turning this somnolent territory into a "Las Vegas of the East". Hong Kong makes history by being the only city in the world in which Britain famed mopheads-the Beatles - lose money. |
| 1965: | The war escalates in Vietnam with first US air strikes against North Vietnam.Hong Kong braces for an American invasion. Us Navy vessels become as familiar in the harbour as do servicemen from the US armed service in the bars and nightclubs of Wanchai and across the harbour in Tsimshatsui restaurants. |
| 1966: | Rioting flares up again. Mao start his great proletarian "cultural revolution" to regain control of the country.The chaos in China spills over into Macau as Red guards plaster the tiny Portuguese territory with posters. Portuguese troops fire on rampaging Red guards. Macau's governor, Brigadier Nobre de Carvalho, negotiates from the position of weakness because Portugal cannot come to aid and Macau tiny police force and garrison is helpless. |
| 1967: | Brigadier de Carvalho suggest that the Portuguese leave Macau. Peking pulls back its Red Guards. The Portuguese make a public apology for the Red Guards killing and pay China HK$2 million in compensation. Meanwhile the Britain Embassy in Peking is sacked and Red Guards take to Hong Kong street. Hong Kong's first vehicle tunnel, the Lion Rock Tunnel, opens as a symbol of the government's regard for the future. |
| 1969: | The Hong Kong government stages first Festival of Hong Kong to thank "residents" who have tolerated the past few year of the cultural revolution across the border with nervous patience, aware of the potential danger to the colony. |
| 1970: | Pope Paul IV visits Hong Kong, the first Roman pontiff to do so. A "Jumbo Jet" arrives for the first time at Kai Tak Airport. |
| 1971: | Sir Murray MacLehose becomes the first Hong Kong governor to be appointed from the British diplomatic corps. This is a signal to China that Britain is concerned about Hong Kong's future. Shortly after MacLehose's arrival, a new Jumbo Floating Restaurant at Aberdeen catches fire. |
| 1972: | In Hong Kong the cross-harbour tunnel opens and motorists bid farewell to the colony's time consuming, but pleasant, cross-harbour vehicular ferry cruises. The cruise liner Queen Elizabeth to be converted into a Seawise Floating Unversity mysteriously catches fire and rolls over in Hong Kong's harbour. |
| 1973: | The first of the "spiralling: OPEC oil price rises hits Hong Kong. Hong Kong's stock market collapses. The colony's first "new town" Tuen Mun, is opened in New Territories. During this shocking year, Hong Kong's rampant police corruption becomes common knowledge. |
| 1974: | Hong Kong sets up an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) with a wide mandate to stamp out corruption. The revolution in Portugal, Macau's governor, Brigadier Nobre de Carvalho, is called back to Lisbon and ordered to resign from the Portuguese army. Lt. Col. Gracia Leandro, replace him. Since China refuses to take back Macau, the colony's status was changed to a "Chinese territory under Portuguese Administration." The Macau-Taipa bridge is completed. |
| 1975: | Her Majestic Queen Elizabeth II and H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh arrive for a visit. |
| 1976: | After a mass demonstration by off-duty policemen on Queensway in Central, the Governor orders an amnesty for all crimes of corruption committed before 1 January 1977. The ICAC drive against corruption became one of the world's most effective. China begins " a new era" under Deng Xianping and Hua Guofeng, the "new" Celestial Kingdom's Vice-Chairman and chairman respectively. |
| 1977: | Rumours hit Macau that Portugal is trying to give the colony away, but the Chinese will not take it back. London continually pressures the Hong Kong government for more social services, but the colony's conversatives resist. Fears grow that Whitehall, under a Labour government, will turn the ultra-capitalistic colony into a welfare state. |
| 1978: | Peking and Lisbon exchange diplomatic niceties and Col Gracia Leandro, Macau governor, visits Macau's old landlord, China. As a sign of improved relations, China approves in principal Hong Kong Macau helicopter service. The gigantic High Island Reservoir opens and helps solve water problems. |
| 1979: | Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MRT) opens. In Kowloon, Sung Dynasty Village opens, offering visitors an easy journey into ancient Chinese "living" culture. |
| 1980: | In October , Hong Kong ends its "touch Base" immigration policy which previously allowed Chinese refugees to remain in the colony if they reached an urban area safely. Such immigrants will no longer be home free here. |
| 1981: | The Housing Department admits that more than 1.2 million people in 250,000 households- 20% of the population still live in "unsatisfactory conditions" |
| 1982: | Visit of British Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher, to Peking and Hong Kong talk about the Hong Kong 's future ( the 99 year lease on the New Territories, nine-tenths of the Colony, expires in 1997). |
| 1983: | Property market continues to fall, pulling with it a number of deposit-taking.In July, the Chinese tip their plan for Hong Kong to group of unversity students: Hong Kong will become a Special Administrative Region, will keep its own capitalistic system, judiciary and police, but the future head will be a Kong Hong China. |
| 1984: | On 26 September, the British Ambassador to China and the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister initial A Draft Arrangement on the Future Hong Kong, ending two years of often acrimonious negotiations between the two countries on Hong Kong's fate. |
| 1985: | Britain
and China ratify the Sino-British Joint
Declaration initialled the previous year and
subsequently register it as an international
treaty as the United Nations.Beijing proceeds to
appoint a Basic Law Drafting Committee (BLDC) of
59 members, 23 from Hong Kong. Its job is to
write the mini-constitution for the Special
Administrative Region created by the Declaration. The Academy for Performing Acts opens and Tolo Highway project in the New Territories is completed. |
| 1986: | April sees the opening of the Unified Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, enabling disparate exchanges under one rule. The Hong Kong index also created, while the Hong Kong Commodities Exchange introduced Hang Seng Index Future Contract. The Joint Liaison Group created under the Sino-British Joint Declaration meets Hong Kong, London, and Beijing. This is the territory's first step in severing its ties with Britain while simultaneously creating different ones with China. Queen Elizabeth and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh visit Hong Kong for the second time in October. |
| 1987: | Sir
David Wilson, former political advisor to the
Hong Kong government, is sworn in as governor and
steps into the middle of the Green Paper debate
on representative government, as focused in the
1988 Legislative Council elections. The British National (Overseas) passport is issued by the Hong Kong government, a document meant to replace the British Dependent territories passport which valid beyond July 1, 1997. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong economy booms, recording a 13.6% gain in GDP. On Black Monday, October 19, Hong Kong's stock market, alone among the world's financial centres, close for four days.The Hong Kong government puts on HK$4 billion to rescue the Hong Kong Futures Exchange.In December, a Sino-Portuguese Agreement initialled in April is signed. The handover of Macau, the first Western enclave on the China coast and the only one ceded, not taken by force, is December 20, 1999. |
| 1988: | The
Hong Kong government announces it will liberalize
the conditions of Vietnamese refugees in closed
camps who arrived before June 16. The Vietnamese
issue should be settled by the handover in 1997.
AWhite Paper on representative government is
published, postponing direct elections to the
Legislative Council in 1988. A draft of the Basic Law, Hong Kong's future constitution when it becomes a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997, is published in April to evoking widespread criticism. For the first time in Hong Kong's history, the Basic Law Committee members meet the press and public in television. |
| 1989: | The pro-democracy movement in China excites Hong Kong. On the democracy, the government walks a thin line between the previous promises and China displeasure at free elections for Legislative Council. Hong Kong and China government decide that members elected to the Legislative Council in 1995 will be serve through 1997 to 1999. In October the government's intention to draw up a Bill of Rights which China objects and threatens to ignore the law after the 1997 handover. Meanwhile, Vietnamese refugees still plague the Colony, the largest concentration of Vietnamese boat people in the world. Following the adverse international publicity, Britain and Hong Kong call off mandatory repatriation. The second harbour road tunnel, the Eastern Harbour Crossing opens.The Prince and Princess of Wales visit Hong Kong in November to open the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. |
| 1990: | The massive Port and Airport Deveploment Strategy begins to hang heavily on Hong Kong. In April, the Basic Law, Hong Kong's post 1997 constitution, is promulgated giving the China's National People's Congress final say over Hong Kong affairs. In December, Hong Kong gains its own shipping registry but the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, moves its headquarter to Britian.After the collapse of cable TV license talks, a 12-year satellite TV license is awarded to Hutch-Vision to beam Star TV throughout Asia. |
| 1994: | On February 1st, Hong Kong gets a third English language daily. The Eastern Express begins publishing and starts a battle for coverage. In April, Jones Lang Wootton rates Hong Kong as the most expensive place in the world to rent an office.On April 7, Hong Kong security forces enter a Vietnamese refugee camp with the aim of curbing protests. The Bank of China as China's state bank becomes a third note issuer in Hong Kong along with Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and Standard Chartered. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's currency has been getting a new looks. On June 22, women in the New Territories received the right to inherit land after the Legislative Council (Legco) passes a bill to this effects. |
| 1997: | The 99 year leased on Hong Kong to the British Crown Colony expires. Hong Kong returned to its motherland, China. |
@ Copyright by REGIT Sdn Bhd. All rights reserved