In 1793, the British sent Count Macartney to visit China as a diplomat, and made a request for friendly exchanges and exchanges with the then Chinese Emperor Qianlong, who arrogantly refused, which was a very important event in Chinese history, marking the last opportunity to open up the great power and was almost absurdly missed.
The Qianlong Emperor rejected the friendly trade exchanges between the two countries, indulged in the illusion of the heavenly kingdom, and blindly adhered to the strategy of "closing the country off the door", while the British at that time under the impact of the first industrial revolution, capitalism began to develop rapidly, and under the impetus of capital, it was extremely necessary to dump China's commodities.
Therefore, driven by the demand for capital and with no resistance from ideological and military factors, Britain brazenly launched the Opium War in 1840, and soon won victory, forcing China to sign the Treaty of Nanking, which humiliated the country. The Qing government, which was unable to save it at that time, painfully ceded the British out and also undertook a huge amount of compensation. At that time, the Qing Dynasty launched a fierce conquest between the British government, and for Hong Kong, the British were determined to win, and even proposed a one-hundred-year lease period in one breath.
For these terms, the Qing government was more powerless, he did not have enough chips to confront the British army in negotiations, discussed for many days, only one purpose, that is, he hoped that the lease period could be shorter, how short? One year. What the Qing government meant at the time was that if you rented for 99 years, it would be fine, but for 100 years, it would never work. Many people can't help but ask, anyway, more lice are not afraid of itching, is there any difference between a hundred years and 99 years? Do you want to cut more?
What's so special about this little episode? What's the secret of a year's difference? It turned out that there was an unwritten rule in the international community that if a place was occupied for more than 100 years, no matter how it was occupied, then it could have formal territorial sovereignty over the occupied land.
It is precisely because the United Kingdom is full of confidence in itself, feeling that there is not much difference between 99 years and 100 years, even after 99 years, maybe the mainland will not be able to defeat the United Kingdom, and then continue to "renew the lease". Fortunately, the Qing government saw through the "trick" in it, and if it really agreed to britain's request and Hong Kong belonged to britain, what a loss it would be for the mainland! I have to sigh that Britain's abacus is really well played, if it really belongs to Britain, I am afraid that it is not so simple to really want to return after the founding of the country.