Even though technically Hong Kong wasn’t part of the PRC until 1997, it was agreed upon officially it would become Chinese in 1984, and the constitution for Hong Kong (The Basic Law) as an SAR of China as well as the Hong Kong flag were already set down in 1990.
Were the Chinese already de facto running Hong Kong and the British occupation only a formality after the Basic Law was passed in 1990? Or did the British in actuality still run Hong Kong until the day it was officially given back to China on July 1, 1997?
I was also thinking how the British Empire ended around the same time as the USSR! Just in time for America and China’s 21st century dominance of affairs.
Hong Kong is semi-autonomous at Beijing’s semi-sufferance. HK-ers really don’t care for mainland Chinese much and the feeling is pretty mutual. A surprising number of people on both sides of the fence are publicly tearing up the certificates that allow them to travel between the two.
China has, in the last 20 years, grown a surprisingly large and affluent middle class that likes to go shopping in HK once in a while. But the former Crown Colonists look at mainland Chinese as embarrassing rustics who pee in the street and forget to tip. Chinese, for their part, can just as easily go shopping in Seoul or Singapore. Britain’s governor is gone, but Hong Kong retains a lot of its legacy.