Great piece - have to admit I find the end of the British Empire fascinating and the handover of Hong Kong is, as much as any event, the definitive final curtain.
I was in HK in 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falklands. This was 2 years before the handover agreement and the future of HK was not really in doubt, but nor was it exactly clear what would happen. When Thatcher had the Royal Navy steam off to the Falklands, there were a lot of questions in HK on whether this foreshadowed future events in HK. It seems however that Britain never really questioned that HK must ultimately be handed back to China, whereas they claimed there was no one to hand Falklands back to. One wonders therefore how they justify not handing back Gibralter.
Great piece - have to admit I find the end of the British Empire fascinating and the handover of Hong Kong is, as much as any event, the definitive final curtain.
I was in HK in 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falklands. This was 2 years before the handover agreement and the future of HK was not really in doubt, but nor was it exactly clear what would happen. When Thatcher had the Royal Navy steam off to the Falklands, there were a lot of questions in HK on whether this foreshadowed future events in HK. It seems however that Britain never really questioned that HK must ultimately be handed back to China, whereas they claimed there was no one to hand Falklands back to. One wonders therefore how they justify not handing back Gibralter.