Hong Kong returns to China
The last major European holding in East Asia is handed back
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Hong Kong had come into British hands as a result of the Opium Wars, so the handover closed a loop that began in 1842. The transition is among the most peaceful windings-up of a colonial possession on record. What "one country, two systems" means in practice became one of the most contested questions of the decades that followed.
For children
Britain handed Hong Kong to China at midnight on 1 July 1997, after a hundred and fifty years as a colony. The agreement was that Hong Kong would keep its own legal system and freedoms for fifty years — "one country, two systems".
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