Sino-British Joint Declaration

Common card · No. 224340

The Sino-British Joint Declaration was a treaty signed in 1984 between the governments of China and the United Kingdom which set the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance of the territory after 1 July 1997. Hong Kong had been a colony of the British Empire since 1842 and its territory was expanded on two occasions; first in 1860 with the addition of Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island, as both were ceded in perpetuity, and again in 1898 when Britain obtained a 99-year lease for the New Territories. The date of the handover in 1997 marked the end of this lease. The Chinese government declared in the treaty its basic policies for governing Hong Kong after the transfer. A special administrative region would be established in the territory that would be self-governing with a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign affairs and defence. Hong Kong would maintain its existing governing and economic systems separate from that of mainland...

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