Hong Kong's History

Key Events

1842 - China surrendered Hong Kong island to Britain after the First Opium War.

1937 - Hong Kong becomes a refuge for thousands of mainland Chinese because of the outbreak of the Sino Japanese war.

1946 - Britain rebuilds the civil government, and thousands of the former residents return.

1967 - Brutal riots break out, mostly started by follower's of China's Cultural Revolution. 

1984 - Britain and China decided to sign a Joint Declaration on the state, under which Hong Kong will revert to the Chinese rule in 1997. Also known as "One country, two systems" formula. 

1989 - The destruction of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square leads to call for the introduction of further independent safeguards in Hong Kong.

1992 - The last British governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten goes over a brief to oversee the colony's handover to China.

         - Chris Patten announces the proposals for the democratic reform of Hong Kong's introduction aimed at enlarging the voting base in election.

1995 - Elections held for new Legislative Council 

1998 - First post-handover elections held.

2002 - 16 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement got arrested during a protest outside Beijing's liaison office in the territory. Falun Gong remains legal in Hong Kong, regardless of having been banned in mainland China in 1999.

2007 - Chief Executive Donald Tsang is appointed to a new five-year term after winning elections in March.

2012 - Leung Chun-ying takes office as chief executive, succeeding Donald Tsang whose last months in office were determined by disagreement over his links with wealthy businessman.

2014 - Tens of thousands of protesters take part in what organisers say could be Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy rally in a decade.

        - Chinese government rules out a fully democratic election for Hong Kong leader in 2017, saying that only candidates approved by Beijing will be allowed to run.

       - Pro-democracy demonstrators occupy the city centre for weeks in protest at the Chinese government's decision to limit voters' choices in the 2017 Hong Kong leadership elections.

       - Authorities take down Mong Kok protest camp, leaving a few hundred protesters at two camps at Admiralty and Causeway Bay.

       - Hong Kong tycoon and former government official Thomas Kwok is sentenced to five years in jail in the city's biggest-ever corruption case.

2015 - Legislative Council rejects proposals for electing the territory's next leader in 2017. Despite pro-democracy protests and a lengthy consultation process, the plans remained the same as those outlined by China in 2014.

Wars

First Opium War

The First Opium War also known as the 'Anglo Chinese War', left an permanent mark on China. China lost Hong Kong and  was forced to open up trade to the foreigners.

(1839 - 1842 and 1856 - 1860, two wars between China and Western countries)

The first was between Great Britain and China. In the early 19 century, British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. In 1839, China enforced its prohibitions on the importations of opium by destroying at Guangzhou Canton, a large quantity of opium was confiscated from British merchants. Britain looked for a way to end China's restrictions on foreign trade, so they responded by sending gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities. China was unable to withstand the modern arms and was defeated and forced to sign the 'Treaty of Nanjing' and 'The British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue'. These provided that the ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai should be opened to the British trade and residence. Another addition, Hong Kong was ceded to the British. Within a few years other Western powers signed similar treaties with China and received commercial and residential privileges and the Western domination of China's treaty ports started to begin. In 1856 a second war broke out following an allegedly illegal Chinese search of a British registered ship, 'The Arrow'. in Guangzhou. The British and The French troops took Guangzhou and Tianjin and compelled the Chinese to accept the treaties of Tianjin, to which France, Russia and the US were also part of it. China agreed to open 11 more ports, permit foreign legations in Beijing, and the legalised the import of opium.

Since Chinese officials once again refused to accomplish a treaty supplies, namely the establishment of Western committees in Peking, an Anglo-French force launched a fresh offensive from Hong Kong in 1860, ultimately destroying the Emperor Xianfeng's Summer Palace in Chengde, and the Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace in Peking among wide-spread looting by both troops and civilians.

Japanese Occupation

The Japanese occupation began when the Governor of Hong Kong (Sir Mark Young) surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to Japan on 26 of December 1941. The surrender happened after about 18 days of violent fighting against the Japanese forces which had invaded the territory. The Occupation lasted for about three years and eight months until Japan decided to surrender at the end of WW2. 

During the Japanese invasion of China, Hong Kong being a part of the British empire was not under attack. Around in the early March 1939, during a huge Japanese bombing raid on Shenzhen, few bombs accidentally fell on Hong Kong's territory which destroyed a bridge and a train station.

Disease Outbreak

Swine Flu (HSI/ H1N1)

The first discovery of cases of the 'Human Swine Influenza' (HSI/ H1N1) was in North America in April 2009. The Outbreak of the disease in Hong Kong peaked in the summer of the same year. As conflicting to gloomy predictions, but, the situation in Hong Kong remained rather stable. On November 2009, there have been about 32,301 confirmed cases of swine flu in the city. In around May 2010, the government was finally able to decline the pandemic alert. 

In August 2010, the World Health Organisation officially announced the HSI/ H1N1 virus has moved into the post pandemic period. However, some cases the infection with the virus are expected to suddenly reappear during the seasonal flu period. The HSI/ H1N1 reappeared in September 2010, when a three year old boy passed away after having been tested for positive HSI / H1N1. Although the Hong Kong authorities continued to monitor the situation there wasn't a Outbreak of the swine flu in recent years.

MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome)

On 8th of June 2015, Hong Kong changed its response to the Outbreak in South Korea
"serious". Hong Kong issued a "red alert" advisory on the 9th of June against non-essential travel to South Korea, where 8 new cases of MERS were reported which brings the total to 95 with 7 fatalities. The number of new South Korean cases was a sharp drop from 23 on Monday but the number of schools closed grew to 2208 including 20 universities.

The governor of Gyeonggi province, which surrounds the South Korean capital (Seoul), said that 32 of its large general hospitals have joined the campaign to fight the MERS Outbreak by offering to take in anyone who is showing MERS symptoms.

The South Korean officials released the names of all the health facilities where MERS victims had been treated or visited, which is now 35.

The city's public broadcaster reported that thousands of tourists have cancelled plans to visit South Korea. The Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong cancelled all tours to South Korea which were scheduled to set off between June 10th and June 30th, excluding cruises, with 10000-12000 travellers to be affected.

The South Korean President has called for an all out national effort to eliminate the MERS Outbreak, which has been spreading since a 68 year old businessman brought it home from a Middle East trip last month.

Bird Flu (H7N9)

The Bird Flu (H7N9) virus is one subgroup among the larger group of H7 viruses that pass among birds. A number of human infections of the Bird Flu virus have been reported in Eastern China, which is mostly in the Yangtze River Delta region since the late March 2013. Most of the patients have died to this severe pneumonia brought on by the virus.

The first person in Hong Kong to die of the Bird Flu (H7N9) was a 61 year old man. He gotten the virus during a visit to the mainland.

Protest

1st of July Marches

The Hong Kong 1st of July protest is an annual protest which was originally led by the 'Civil Human Rights Front' since the 1997 handover on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day also known as HKSAR Establishment Day. However, it was not "popular" until 2003 that the march drew large public attention by opposing the legislation of the 'Basic Law'. The 2003 protest with over 500,000 marchers was the largest protest ever seen in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover. Prior to this, only the pro-democracy protest on 21 May 1989 drew more people with 1.5 million marchers in Hong Kong sympathising with the participants of the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989. Since then, 1st of July marches have been held every year as a channel to demand democracy, universal suffrage, rights of minorities, protection of freedom of speech and lots more of political concerns.