Hong Kong's return to China was a major event in the history of New China, and it was also a landmark event in the glorious retreat of the British Empire.
【Hong Kong's Return to the Motherland】
After Hong Kong's return to the motherland, opposition voices in Britain emerged one after another, and many people thought that Britain had not really sunset, how could it be so easy to cede Hong Kong, which had been in operation for a hundred years, to China, and even in the British army, there was no shortage of young officers who held this idea.
The empire is growing in the west
Britain's decline accelerated significantly after World War II, and Hong Kong's return to China in 1997 was already the result of a half-century of forced British life. In fact, as early as 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the Chinese government had the idea of reclaiming Hong Kong.
【Deng Xiaoping and Thatcher】
However, at that time, the most basic order of the country had not yet been established, and the talks about recovering Hong Kong were somewhat ambitious, so it was only in the 80s, when the mainland really had the strength of international wrestling, that China and Britain began to really start negotiations on the Hong Kong issue.
Compared with China's journey of gaining the initiative step by step on the Hong Kong issue and finally realizing the reunification of the motherland, the British people feel extremely angry and humiliated by the British government's series of actions on the Hong Kong issue.
Even Margaret Thatcher, known as the Iron Lady, was accused of weakly ceding Britain's core interests and not worthy of the tough and decisive strongman style of the past.
[Thatcher is blamed]
It is not unreasonable for the British to be distressed, after all, before China and Britain reached a final conclusion on the Hong Kong issue, Britain and Argentina were also caught in a similar conflict, and Britain's way of dealing with it was to launch a Falklands War that shocked the world, and directly silenced Argentina through military means.
What is incomprehensible to the British is that Hong Kong is much more important to the UK than the Falklands, and why the UK can strike the Falklands issue and swallow its anger on the Hong Kong issue.
【Falklands War】
Of course, from China's point of view, Hong Kong is China's inherent territory, and it is only natural that Britain should return to Hong Kong, and it is strange that the British are indignant about something that does not belong to them in the first place.
But you must know that Britain, as the grandfather of colonialism and the world's largest empire, has developed a habitual thinking that what I grab is mine, and they don't care whether Hong Kong belongs to China in history.
After all, if you count according to the original territory of Britain, but only the British Isles, how can there be a glorious empire on which the sun never sets. It is not surprising that Britain has been dominating the world for more than 200 years, and the British people have naturally developed the idea of colonialism and the three views.
【British Colonial Army】
They will only blame the Chinese for the weakness and incompetence of their own Qing government, which gave up such a good piece of land.
Another reason why it was difficult for Britain to give up Hong Kong was that during British colonial rule, Hong Kong became the most important financial and trading center in the Far East, in other words, Britain invested a lot of time and money in Hong Kong to build, and it was naturally more painful for the British to give up Hong Kong Island than to cut meat.
In particular, with the collapse of the international colonial order after World War II, Hong Kong became the last bridgehead for British influence in the Far East, and its importance was even greater than before.
【Hong Kong British Police】
A resolute opponent
If Hong Kong is so difficult to give up, why did Britain finally let it go? In fact, it is due to the declining national power of the United Kingdom.
Britain's overseas colonization was based on its overseas military presence, but with the decline of Britain's national power, Britain has lost much of its ability to move troops overseas. The victory in the Falklands War could only be regarded as a return to the past, but China was not Argentina, and Britain had no military advantage over China at that time.
【British Athletic Aircraft Carrier】
In particular, when Margaret Thatcher found that the aftermath of the Falklands War with Britain could not have any deterrent effect on China at all, Britain had lost the initiative in the negotiations.
Because Britain had no way to really deploy its own land, sea and air forces to Hong Kong at that time, its only hole card was the deterrent effect of the Falklands War, if this hole card had no effect, no matter how clever Margaret Thatcher was, she would not be able to stop the general trend of Hong Kong's return.
Regarding the determination of the Chinese people to return to Hong Kong, Deng Gong has one of the most representative sentences, saying that China is poor but not afraid of death. This is to tell Margaret Thatcher bluntly that if Britain wants to solve the Hong Kong problem by military means, then the PLA will definitely accompany it to the end.
[China has taken a tough stance in the Sino-British negotiations]
Deng Gongneng said this sentence, which is enough to show that China was ready to reunify Hong Kong by force at that time.
However, the British who had a correct understanding of the strength of China and Britain at that time were in the minority, and even many young British officers believed that the abandonment of Hong Kong was a disgrace to the British army.
In 2000, in a class at a British military academy, students discussed Hong Kong with their teachers. In the face of the students' questions, the admiral gave for the first time why he did not choose to defend Hong Kong by force.
The admiral officer did not quote the scriptures, but issued a soul torture to all the students, if Britain did not return Hong Kong, then who was present would be willing to go with him to the battlefield to face the PLA.
[The People's Liberation Army is an invincible opponent for the British army]
As soon as these words came out, the whole teacher was silent, and the war also depends on the strength of the opponent, if the opponent is Argentina, everyone will naturally choose to attack, but if it is the People's Liberation Army, the situation is very different.
Britain has suffered losses from the PLA not once or twice, and during the War of Liberation, the Far East Fleet, which Britain was proud of, suffered a great loss from the PLA artillery in the Purple Quartz Incident.
In the Korean War, the British army, as part of the coalition forces, confronted the volunteers on the battlefield, all of which were beaten out of the body, and the psychological shadow left by the strong combat effectiveness of the Chinese army on the British army has not faded for decades.
When their own strength is inferior to that of their opponents, slapping a swollen face and becoming fat will only increase the laughing stock, and Margaret Thatcher realized this, rather than making Britain embarrassed in front of the world, it is better to go down the steps given by China.
【Raising the National Flag in Hong Kong】
Although Britain declined, it at least saved some face. It is also the most ideal choice in adverse situations.
Sources:
[1] Hong Kong's return to the motherland .Hexun pictures[Citation date: 2016-07-22]