Hong Kong’s relative independence from China was supposed to last for half a century after Britain handed it over in 1997.
Less than half way through the agreed time, cherished freedoms are being snatched away, with a new security law passed by China’s parliament on 28 May.
It could mean, among other things, Chinese intelligence agencies setting up bases in the city.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says he is ” deeply concerned” about the latest steps by the Chinese Government
• Subscribe to ITV News on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2lOHmNj
• Get breaking news and more stories at http://www.itv.com/news
Follow ITV News on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itvnews/
Follow ITV News on Twitter: https://twitter.com/itvnews
Follow ITV News on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itvnews/
In This Story: Hong Kong
Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR), is a metropolitan area and special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta of the South China Sea. With over 7.5 million residents of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. The whole territory was transferred to China in 1997. As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of “one country, two systems”.
