July 1, 1997Reputable sourceWell documented
The Handover of Hong Kong
On the timeline · around July 1, 1997 ·
What happened
At midnight on 1 July 1997, after 156 years of colonial rule, Britain handed Hong Kong back to China. The transfer followed the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, under which China agreed that Hong Kong would keep its own economic and social system for 50 years under a 'one country, two systems' arrangement.
Why it matters
The handover of Hong Kong — one of Britain's last and most prosperous colonies — is widely seen as the symbolic end of the British Empire, closing a story that had begun four centuries earlier.
Sources
Related timelines
- History of China → — Hong Kong returns to China