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The UK didn't have much of choice. Their lease on the New Territories (basically all of HK except Kowloon and the Island) expired in 1997, so that was going ba
by 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
The UK didn't have much of choice. Their lease on the New Territories (basically all of HK except Kowloon and the Island) expired in 1997, so that was going back to China regardless, and they concluded that HK was not viable without it.
- skissane 6y agoIf they still recognised ROC instead of PRC they could have returned it to ROC instead. Alternatively, UK could have made switching recognition from ROC to PRC conditional on a New Territories lease renewal.
- GordonS 6y agoThat would never have happened for obvious political reasons (China). If it ever had happened, I don't think it would have ended well for the HK citizens...
- skissane 6y agoThe UK (and other Western countries) had a massive bargaining chip over PRC as long as they recognised ROC instead. They could have demanded a higher price for recognising PRC, and I think PRC wanted their recognition enough they would have paid. (And a better deal on HK could have been part of that price.) Instead, the West gave this bargaining chip away for cheap-some short-term alliance against the Soviets which the end of the Cold War made irrelevant, which probably did little or nothing to contribute to the Soviet Union’s fall, and which cost PRC very little since PRC and USSR were already on bad terms anyway. PRC played their hand very well, the West played very poorly.