The history of Hong Kong is an interesting one and moreover, it has defined Hong Kong as an export oriented region. This section therefore explores the most important historical developments of Hong Kong, and discusses the effects on the economic development.
Towards colonization
Geographically, Hong Kong consists of three large regions; a region that is attached to China (New territories and Kowloon), Hong Kong Island and Lantau (see figure ???). The soil is fertile, and due to its abundance of sea, the habitants of Hong Kong have always been able to richly harvest fish (Roberts, Ling, & Bradshaw, 1992). However, the West has valued Hong Kong for something else; its unique geographical location. Situated at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong has been interesting ever since the West discovered China’s products. Throughout history, the Pearl River Delta has been the gateway for trade with the Western world, since there is very little east of China except for Japan which was unwilling to trade for many decades. So, when the West, and especially Britain, discovered Chinese tea, silk and chinaware, their ships would set course for the Pearl River. However, China enforced strict policies regarding trade, which complicated matters for the western merchants. After the Opium War (which was discussed more in-depth in section 2.2.1) Britain finally achieved its objectives; they could establish free trade ports and abolished many trade restrictions. Moreover, they colonized Hong Kong, making it an imperial outpost for economic exchanges (Roberts, Ling, & Bradshaw, 1992).
Hong Kong: a colony (1843-1997)
With Hong Kong as its colony, and less trade restrictions Britain was able to expand trade with China, which provided an imp...
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Hong Kong Reading - "The Book of the Year" Through imperialism, British rule encouraged industrialization and modernization which led to visible growth in the economy as the city is described as a trade center and important in manufacturing and banking, which suggests that the industries and businesses prospered. Additionally, the fear of Chinese rule suggests that businesses operated better under British rule, which shows how imperialism improved the lives of the people of Hong Kong compared to the government before imperial rule. The way that citizens of Hong Kong left the colony before it was returned to China further highlights the different effects of British rule and Chinese rule on the people, suggesting that British rule was preferred by the citizens of Hong Kong which is why they left rather than live under Chinese rule. This implies that the colonized people considered Great Britain’s imperialist rule to be better than the government before which was Chinese. This demonstrates that imperialism improved the lives of the colonized people because it helped the economy grow and prosper.
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The imperial realms of East Asia before the 19th century were largely based on the theory that Asian countries were far better than their neighbors in the West. The nonchalant manner portrayed by East Asian countries towards western technology and culture led China to become unknowledgeable of the Western empires. As a result, China was astonishingly impacted by imperialism from Great Britain during the 1800’s. During the 18th century Great Britain had set up trade off the coast of the Chinese borders to trade British silver for China’s soft silks, fine porcelain, and strong teas. During this period Qing officials overlooked the foreign brokers. By the early 1800’s, however, Great Britain b...
The geography of China was something like a fence. This isolation made the people of China feel like their country was prestigious and secluded from the rest of the world. With deserts and the Himalayas running along most of the border, it was extremely difficult to cross over one of the most dangerous mountain ranges in the world and a few other scorching deserts with the little transport they had during that time. The only way merchants could come into the country was the southeastern coast of China where most of the prosper cities resided. What led China to become conceited was because they had an abundant of goods that most of the world wanted. In 1760-1830s, China was famous for its porcelain (rich Europeans loved it), silk, and of course, tea. Since this Eastern Powerhouse’s goods were so popular, therefore, there were only a few things that interested them to trade with. It seemed as if tea was a drug for the Europeans because for them it was just so addicting, to the point they would do anything just to get more and more. The only things that were worthy for trading with the Chinese were gingko (type of plant), shark fin, a soft type of wood (used for incense) and silver. As the demand for tea rose, Britain gradually ran out of silver to trade with, and was desperate to find what China wanted. Then, the British resorted to trading opium. China was very picky of their opium. There was a certain kind of make they wanted, it was a compact ball wr...
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Hong Kong is a very special city. It has a very interesting history. In 1842, Hong Kong Island of Hong Kong was ceded by China to Great Britain. In 1860, Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong was ceded to England. In 1898, the rest of Hong Kong, the New Territories and 235 outlying islands were leased to England for 99 years. In the early 1980’s, the British and Chinese government began to have negotiations about Hong Kong’s future since the lease would expire on July 1st, 1997. The leader of China, Deng XiaoPing, introduced the “One Country, Two System”. The “One Country, Two System” was intended by China to give Hong Kong’s citizen a promise that communism wouldn’t prevail over capitalism in Hong Kong. This way, China would gain trusts from Hong Kong’s citizens that the conditions would be the same when the Great Britain returned the sovereignty of Hong Kong back to China. British and Chinese representatives signed the British-Sino Joint Declaration in 1984, authorizing the transition of Hong Kong’s sovereignty in the midnight of July 1st, 1997. Hong Kong citizens were excited that Hong Kong would finally return to its motherland. China wanted to show the world that the “One Country, Two System” would be unique and successful so that China could attract Macau and Taiwan to return to China.
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Whereas China ushered in the 21st Century as member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and as an economic power, Japan entered the Asian Century with a stagnant economy. And as China transforms its economy into a ‘socialist market economy’ it is held that the attendant social, economic, and political transformations necessitate that its state controlled IRs system is decentralized and more so, it should be converge with international best practice IR sta...
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By 1971, the Cultural Revolution in China had ended in failure and conditions in Hong Kong calmed,” Gloria Lannom states, yet it took a while for Hong Kong to rebuild its economic standings because of this fact.
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