Britain's capture of Hong Kong and subsequent decline

Hong Kong, in south-eastern China, first became part of the Chinese state in the year 214 B.C., during the reign of the Qin dynasty. The title Hong Kong, which means Fragrant Harbour, only started to appear in Chinese historical records following the accession to power in China of the Ming dynasty in the mid-14th century. 

 

Hong Kong acquired its name from the export of sweet-smelling (fragrant) incense products, related to the cultivation of incense trees on the territory. During China's Tang and Song dynasties, covering the periods from the early 7th century to the late 13th century, the majority of people in Hong Kong lived in the southern part of the region. 

 

Major changes occurred thereafter in the area. Hong Kong scholar Anthony Siu Kwok-Kin wrote, "During the Ming dynasty, incense wood and incense products were assembled at the north-east of Shek Pai Wan before being shipped to Canton [80 miles north-west of Hong Kong]... In the Ming dynasty because of the production of incense wood in the area, the economic condition of the people became better. More people came to live on the island". 

 

By the end of the Ming dynasty in 1644, Hong Kong and its coastal waters were regularly assailed by hordes of pirates. The Chinese authorities, in an attempt to counter the pirates, built forts and military facilities along the Hong Kong coastlines but piracy continued to be a serious problem for the territory well into the 19th century. 

 

 

Considering Hong Kong's diminutive size the area contains a surprising diversity of wildlife from water buffalo, bats, and wild boar to Burmese pythons, the latter one of the planet's biggest snake species. The wild boar give Hong Kong's human residents more trouble than the pythons, because of the boars' ability to inhabit rural and urban areas. 

 

Hong Kong's harbour was extensively used by ships plying their trade in the maritime passage of China's old Silk Road, a network of trade routes that were in operation from the pre-medieval era to the mid-15th century. Hong Kong's harbour, which is deep and sheltered by granite hills, is particularly known for its quality. 

 

Hong Kong was widely inhabited by humans for a few thousand years, and the first Europeans to enter Hong Kong did not come until 1513, when Portuguese explorers arrived by vessel. In the 1520s the Portuguese were expelled from Hong Kong by Chinese forces during military engagements, but in 1557 Portugal managed to take control of Macau, a series of Chinese islands less than 40 miles to the west of Hong Kong. 

 

Across the centuries Hong Kong was for the large part firmly a territory of China. Growing numbers of Han Chinese, easily the biggest ethnic group in China, settled in Hong Kong. Yet the area was increasingly wrested from Chinese control from the mid-19th century by the British empire during its narco-trafficking operations, the biggest in history, as Britain attempted to flood China with opium, a highly addictive drug. 

 

Among Britain's ambitions in establishing a foothold in China was to further enrich itself, increase its presence in the Eastern hemisphere, and eliminate China as a rival. Between the early 1840s and 1898, the British seized control of the three main areas making up the vast majority of Hong Kong. 

 

 

Towards the end of the 19th century, the British empire was coming under pressure in parts of the Western hemisphere and Eurasia, with the emergence of rivals like Germany and Japan; along with established international powers such as Russia whose influence in the Far East, Central Asia, and eastern Europe had been increasing in the late 19th century; as is the case again in current times under Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has re-established Russia as one of the world's leading nations alongside the United States and China. 

 

Britain's population, meanwhile, was 37 million in 1890, much smaller than Russia (118 million) and to a lesser extent Germany (49 million). Around the year 1900 British industrial output was being overtaken by its rivals, the US, Russia, and Germany. Historian Donald J. Goodspeed wrote that Britain's decline as a nation began "much earlier, probably around 1870". 

 

Unlike many European states and America, China is an old country and its people are patient; with the nation's growing economic strength, it was inevitable that China would re-emerge as a major power. Since the time of the Silk Road, Hong Kong was one of China's most important links to territories overseas. 

 

Until recent decades around 90 percent of Chinese emigrants departed through Hong Kong, and the Chinese who returned to their home country from abroad often came through the same area. 

 

American opium dealers in Hong Kong had a significant presence in the region from the mid-19th century. Hong Kong was a large terminus for America's trade network in the 19th and 20th centuries involving human labour and commodities like silk, tea, flour, and lumber. 

 

Under British rule Hong Kong experienced no military action during the First World War, but it served as a vital place of resupply for the British Navy. The greatest threat to Britain's control of Hong Kong at the outbreak of fighting in August 1914 was considered to be the German warships (east Asia squadron) frequently stationed in eastern China in Shandong province's coastal waters. 

 

In 1914 the Germans had enough to worry about elsewhere, on land and sea, and the German naval squadron in question would suffer heavy damage on the other side of the world in an encounter with the British Navy in the Falkland Islands, on 8 December 1914. Following this battle the British authorities knew they would be safe in Hong Kong from enemy assault for the remainder of World War I. 

 

It was a very different story for British control of Hong Kong in World War II, when the territory was captured by the Japanese military in late December 1941. This is often portrayed in Western annals, subconsciously or otherwise, as Hong Kong falling under the sway of a foreign, hostile power for the first time, when at that point there had been a British presence in Hong Kong for a hundred years. 

 

Hong Kong was under Tokyo's control for fewer than 4 years, ending in August 1945 with Japan's defeat and unconditional surrender. This also meant that Japan promptly lost its sovereignty and status as a major power. 

 

 

During a century and a half of British rule, London had directly overseen Hong Kong by dispatching governors and expatriate civil servants to the territory. The British also appointed pro-Western local elites to positions of power in urban and rural parts of Hong Kong. To reaffirm loyalty to Britain, the British authorities conferred the local elites with titles like "MBE" or "OBE". 

 

Following China's 1949 revolution most of the country was brought under Beijing's control in the immediate following years, with the exception of areas like Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Regardless of this during the Korean War, when the US government and the United Nations imposed embargoes on China for participating in the conflict, the Chinese were able to send through Hong Kong's harbour scarce commodities such as penicillin, gas, and kerosene. 

 

After the Korean War ended in 1953, factories in Hong Kong funded by American money supplied the US consumer market with manufactured goods in the form of clothing, wigs, and plastic flowers. The creation of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong in 1969 was another sign of Washington's growing influence in the territory. The number of American expatriates in Hong Kong was also overtaking the British expatriates living there. 

 

In the 1950s and 1960s, the British sent to Hong Kong a group of second-generation colonial servants who were transferred from former British colonies in south Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Into the 1960s Hong Kong's police force was still developed along colonial lines and the majority of its senior officers were expatriate veterans who had been based in parts of Africa, Palestine, and Malaya. 

 

In 1972 China's government stated that Hong Kong's future was a strictly internal affair to be decided by Beijing at the right time. In 1979 the British governor of Hong Kong, Murray MacLehose, travelled to Beijing. He was told by the country's leader, Deng Xiaoping, that China was going to reassume control of Hong Kong by 1997, when Britain's century-long lease on the region was due to expire. 

 

In 1982 Britain's prime minister Margaret Thatcher visited China, in the hope of negotiating an extension which would maintain London's hold over Hong Kong for decades to come. Thatcher momentarily considered defending Hong Kong by force against China's military if needed, but it became clear to London that their armed forces on their own lacked the strength and numbers to thwart the larger Chinese military. 

 

Thatcher was informed by China's authorities that Britain by itself would have no hope of defending such a small area like Hong Kong by military means, and Thatcher grudgingly admitted they were right.

 

 

Anthony Siu Kwok-Kin, The History of Hong Kong: From a Village to a City, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 29, 1989 

 

John M. Carroll, A Concise History of Hong Kong (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 25 May 2007) 

 

"The Battle of the Falklands 8th December 1914", Royalmarineshistory.com, 9 December 2019

 

Donald J. Goodspeed, The German Wars: 1914-1945 (Bonanza Books, 1 January 1985) 

 

Politics in China: An Introduction, edited by William A. Joseph (Oxford University Press; 3rd edition, 6 June 2019) 

 

Oded Shenkar, The Chinese Century: The Rising Chinese Economy and its Impact on the Global Economy, the Balance of Power, and your job (Wharton School Publishing, 31 January 2006)