ON July 1, 1997, Hong Kong reverted back to Chinese rule in a ceremony attended by Chinese, British, and international dignitaries.

Hong Kong is one of two special administrative regions of People’s Republic of China, the other being Macau. The territory lies on the eastern side of the Pearl River Delta, bordering Guangdong province in the north and facing the South China Sea in the east, west, and south. Beginning as a trading port in the 19th century, Hong Kong has developed into one of the world’s leading financial centers.

In 1839, Britain invaded China to crush opposition to its interference in the country’s economic, social, and political affairs. In 1841,China ceded Hong Kong, a sparsely inhabited island off the coast of southeast China, to the British with the signing of the Convention of Chuenpi. The next year, the Treaty of Nanking was signed, formally ending the first Opium War.

Britain’s new colony flourished as an East-West trading center and as the commercial gateway and distribution center for southern China. In 1898, Britain was granted an additional 99 years of rule over Hong Kong under the Second Convention of Peking. In 1984, after years of negotiations, the British and the Chinese signed a formal agreement approving the 1997 turnover of the island in exchange for a Chinese pledge to preserve Hong Kong’s economic system.

We congratulate the people and government of Hong Kong led by H.E., President Hu Jintao, and Chief Executive Donald Tsang, on the occasion of their 12th Anniversary of the Hong Kong turnover. We wish them success in all their endeavors.