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Hong Kong Handover: Symbols of a Global Transfer of Power
by Melvin Rhodes
A global power a century ago, once in control of a quarter of the world’s land mass, Britain is losing yet another key possession: the thriving island of Hong Kong. Events in Hong Kong are set to dominate the news in 1997 as it passes from British to Chinese rule at midnight on June 30. As one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the world changes hands, 156 years of British control will come to an end.
Media emphasis will be on the human rights of Hong Kong’s 6.2 million residents and the future of the Hong Kong economy, one of the world’s strongest. Little notice will be taken of a much deeper meaning and symbolism in this pivotal event as the 20th century draws to a close.
June 1997 marks the expiration of Britain’s 99-year lease of Hong Kong’s New Territories. Of special interest to both Britain and Hong Kong is that the same month marks the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest celebrations in world history, Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It’s no coincidence that the 99-year lease on the New Territories began a few months later. No official celebration of the jubilee will take place in Hong Kong.
James Morris, in the second volume of his history
of the British Empire, vividly describes the Diamond Jubilee: "It
was the largest Empire in the history of the world, comprising nearly
a quarter of the land mass of the earth, and a quarter of the population.
Victoria herself was a Queen-Empress of such aged majesty that some of
her simpler subjects considered her divine, and slaughtered propitiatory
goats before her image. The sixtieth anniversary of her accession to the
throne was being celebrated as
a festival of imperial strength, splendor and unity—a mammoth exhibition
of power, in a capital that loved things to be colossal" (Pax Britannica, publisher, city, year, page number).
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