Late at night on June 30, 1997, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre was brightly lit and the people in the venue were all engrossed, which was a historic moment for China, Britain, Hong Kong and the world, because on the upcoming July 1, Hong Kong would return to the embrace of the motherland, more than a hundred years after the Qing government's crushing defeat in the Opium War and the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing.
At 23:42 on the evening of June 30, everything was ready, the Sino-British Hong Kong power handover ceremony officially began, after the Chinese and British flag protectors entered the scene, according to the plan began the flag lowering and flag-raising ceremony, as the British national anthem slowly came out, all The Chinese and foreign guests stood up and watched the British flag and the Hong Kong flag slowly fall.
Hong Kong Handover Ceremony
On July 1, at midnight, the high-spirited national anthem of the People's Republic of China fluttered over the exhibition center under the enthusiastic performance of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Military Band, and under the escort of the flag bearer, the Chinese national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region were slowly raised, symbolizing that the Chinese government has regained its sovereignty over Hong Kong more than a hundred years later.
At this time, the Chinese sons and daughters inside the venue were very excited, and many people had tears in their eyes, this historic moment belonged to all the sons and daughters who fought for the Chinese nation, but at this moment of universal celebration, there was a very regrettable thing, and this regret has forever become a footnote to Hong Kong's return to the motherland.
On February 19, 1997, Comrade Deng Xiaoping passed away and left this land he loved, just over 200 days after he single-handedly promoted the negotiations between China and britain and paid great efforts to return to Hong Kong, and Deng Gong, who was concerned about Hong Kong, was finally unable to see the flag of the People's Republic of China flying over Hong Kong.
Deng Xiaoping in his later years
In 1979, the British began to test China's position on the Hong Kong issue, on March 24 of that year, a British entered Beijing, at this time China has reformed and opened up, the foreigners on the streets of Beijing are not new, but this British is very special, he came to Beijing this time, there is also a special purpose, the 25th British governor of Hong Kong MacLehose wants to see Comrade Deng Xiaoping.
MacLehose's trip was very smooth, but for this trip, he said very little to the media after returning to Hong Kong, but instead completely helped Comrade Deng Xiaoping convey a word, that is, to reassure Hong Kong investors. This news has set off great waves in Hong Kong, and this sentence is enough to represent the significance of this meeting, and all sectors of society have also seen China's attitude toward the Hong Kong issue from this news.
The toughness of Comrade Deng Xiaoping's attitude on the Hong Kong issue was something that the British did not expect, and they would not have known that Deng Xiaoping's toughness was beyond their imagination.
Sino-British relations were somewhat cold at that time, which stemmed from the many wars waged by Britain against the Qing government in the 19th century, the first Opium War and the Second Opium War broke out successively, and the Qing government was defeated in both wars, and had to be forced to sign a treaty of land indemnity for the loss of power and humiliation, and a number of treaties signed successively ceded the Hong Kong area to Britain, from July 1, 1898 to June 30, 1997, a full 100 years, if you count from the British occupation of Hong Kong Island, it is as long as 155 years.
Opium war
Seeing that the treaty was about to expire, the British wanted to negotiate with the Chinese government for their own interests on Hong Kong Island, but they did not expect that the Chinese government had long been fully prepared for the Hong Kong issue, especially Comrade Deng Xiaoping's very creative proposal of "one country, two systems" famous concept.
At that time, for the sake of the country's peaceful reunification, our leaders conceived of two lines, mainly for the Taiwan issue, which will adopt both methods of force and peace, and try to adopt a peaceful approach as much as possible when circumstances permit.
Later, in the 1970s, the changes in the international and domestic situations were very conducive to peaceful methods to achieve peaceful reunification, so this idea was put forward again, and after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the focus of the work of the party and the state began to shift to economic construction at this time, and this measure also made Hong Kong and Macao compatriots, on both sides of the Straits, and the Chinese people in foreign countries and the north of the South China Sea, have a great enthusiasm for the revitalization of China.
It was against this background that the Chinese Government put forward the principle and policy of "one country, two systems," which can create excellent conditions for the interests and future of the country and the nation, and the Chinese Government also took swift action and issued a "Letter to Taiwan Compatriots" on January 1, 1979, informing Taiwan compatriots and the people of the world of China's peaceful stand.
Comrade Deng Xiaoping's reception of MacLehose was before this policy was proposed, but it was already roughly possible to see China's attitude, and by 1979, two years had passed since Deng Xiaoping received MacLehose, and the British government did not have a clear response to the Hong Kong issue.
Until Margaret Thatcher, then British Prime Minister, learned of the Chinese government's plan to reclaim Hong Kong sovereignty, and set China as a second stop on her 1982 trip to the Far East, Thatcher did not expect that when she stepped on Chinese soil with the pride of the empire that never set, she actually fell sharply.
Margaret Thatcher arrived in Beijing on September 22, 1982, and only two days later began to consult with Comrade Deng Xiaoping on the Hong Kong issue.
Mrs. Thatcher, dressed in a blue suit, had just walked out of the Great Hall of the People a few steps, and after a hesitation, she fell forward, but thanks to the quick response of her assistant, she pulled Thatcher in time, so that she only lay on the ground.
Thatcher fell
On September 24, 1982, Comrade Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher held this historic meeting at 9:00 a.m. in the Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the People, and the negotiations were actually very simple, and The British ideas were based on the legal benefits of the many treaties signed by the Qing government, which was used to prove Britain's initiative in the Hong Kong issue.
Deng Xiaoping met with Thatcher
However, she obviously underestimated Comrade Deng Xiaoping and our country's determination to achieve peaceful reunification; since the founding of New China, the attitude of the new Chinese government towards the many unequal treaties signed by the Qing government has been completely unrecognized.
After Margaret Thatcher finished speaking, Comrade Deng Xiaoping began to speak, and a few short sentences were sonorous and powerful, and China's position on the sovereignty issue was very clear, that is, the sovereignty issue could not be decided through negotiations, and this negotiation was about China's recovery of Hong Kong in 1997. It was clear that this was not what Margaret Thatcher had envisioned.
It is said that during this meeting, Deng Xiaoping seemed to have made a decisive remark, that is, although Chinese is a little poorer, if the issues are not discussed, they are not afraid of war. Many years later, Margaret Thatcher recalls this history with a shock, because before she came to China, she was convinced that Britain could play a decisive role in the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, but later found out that she was very wrong.
Even when Thatcher told Comrade Deng Xiaoping the truth she firmly believed, he smiled and said, "If China is willing, Hong Kong will return to China later today." This sentence made Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister full of pride and pride, shudder, and could only barely maintain her diplomatic demeanor and standard smile.
The negotiations took two and a half hours, fifty minutes longer than planned, which further confirmed the media's conjecture that the meeting discussed important issues, until Margaret Thatcher walked out of the Great Hall of the People and wrestled, the media could undoubtedly confirm that this was an important meeting that could decide the Hong Kong issue, even after the meeting, the announcements of both China and Britain only said that negotiations would continue through diplomatic channels.
At this meeting, the Chinese government also conveyed an important notice to the British government, that is, the deadline for China to reach an agreement on the Hong Kong issue is two years, and if the negotiations do not make progress within two years, China will make its own decisions on the Hong Kong issue. After the meeting, the media hyped up Thatcher's wrestling, especially on the British side, but Comrade Deng Xiaoping and the Chinese media, out of respect for Margaret Thatcher, did not describe the matter much.
Margaret Thatcher's frustration in this meeting did not make her change her mind, after all, as the prime minister who was once known as the "Empire of the Sun Never Sets", she still had the title of Iron Lady, but in that statement issued by Margaret Thatcher, there was an interesting paragraph, that is, she used a Chinese idiom "a hundred things are better than a sight" to describe the meeting with Comrade Deng Xiaoping, and the entire statement did not mention that the negotiations were not smooth.
In the spring of 1983, which was already a quarter of the two-year deadline proposed by Comrade Deng Xiaoping, Thatcher also realized the seriousness of the situation, and in the panic, she sought help from Kissinger of the United States.
Kissinger
The situation was urgent, and Thatcher held a meeting in London in March 1983 to discuss countermeasures, and the British have always had a tradition of wanting to solve it by force, and this time was no exception, but after calm consideration, such an approach was not adopted by Thatcher, but used a fairly gentle approach.
After the meeting, Thatcher sent a letter to the British negotiator, expressing the results of the domestic meeting, that is, britain no longer insisted on the sovereignty of Hong Kong, so the two sides began negotiations on the Hong Kong issue on July 12, the two sides sent 6 representatives who were fluent in both languages, and interestingly, the British side also had people who could speak fluent Cantonese.
The negotiations between the two sides have been round after round, and during the first three rounds of negotiations, the number of announcements issued has become less and less, which can break the hearts of Hong Kong shareholders, because this negotiation has a huge impact on Hong Kong's stock market, and some people may get rich overnight as the Sino-British negotiations improve, and some people will lose their homes with speculation that the negotiations are not smooth.
In order to smoothly carry out the negotiations on the Hong Kong issue, Comrade Deng Xiaoping also met with former British Prime Minister Heath, hoping that he would once again convey the Chinese government's ideas to Margaret Thatcher, and since the two sides wanted to negotiate, they would sit down and have a good talk, hoping that when the time came, the Sino-British joint statement would not be turned into a statement on China's unilateral recovery of Hong Kong.
The meeting gave Margaret Thatcher the idea of changing her position, but the next few Sino-British talks did not lead to substantive progress, and the joint committee and joint contact group proposed by the Chinese side were rejected by the British, which made the negotiations stalemate again.
With only two months left before the deadline given by the Chinese Government, at the behest of Comrade Deng Xiaoping, an ultimatum was issued to the British Government, and if the british side could not accept the final version of the draft, then the Chinese side would have to withdraw the plan, and as for the consequences of the withdrawal plan, britain would have to bear it unilaterally.
As soon as this statement came out, the speed of negotiations in the next two days exceeded the speed of many negotiations in the previous two years, until September 26, 1984, after 22 rounds of negotiations between China and britain, the Hong Kong issue was finally resolved by both sides, and Hong Kong would officially return to the embrace of the motherland on July 1, 1997.
Hong Kong's return
The return of Hong Kong is of great significance to China's history, China's socialist modernization and the reunification of the motherland have taken a big step forward, and the peaceful return of Hong Kong has also provided experience for the subsequent return of Macao, and this wealth will also play a great role in the face of the issue of Taiwan's return.
Hong Kong's return to the motherland is inseparable from the efforts of the broad masses of Chinese sons and daughters, and it is precisely because countless patriots and patriotic hearts have come together that the Chinese nation can hold its head high in the world and stand proudly among the nations of the world.