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Chapter 7 Hong Kong Hong Kong's 5.7 million people live in an area of 1,071 square kilometers , making Hong Kong one of the most densely populated areas of the world; approximately 98% are of Chinese origin, and by the mid1980s nearly 60% had been born in Hong K ~ n g . ~ " Administered by the United Kingdom since 1842, the territory of Hong Kong consists of Hong Kong and the Lan Tau Islands, the Kowloon Peninsula, and more than 200 smaller islands. It is a major trading and manufacturing hub and the world's third largest financial center, with total banking deposit liabilities of over US$80 billion and a generally unfettered free-market economy.4i2Its annual per capita income of approximately US$8,300 is surpassed in Asia only by Singapore and Japan and is almost fifteen times greater than that of the People's Republic of China. Average annual growth in Gross Domestic Product in 1976-1985 was 7.696, with increases of over 11% in 1986 and 1987."' The British acquired authority over Hong Kong in a series of three nineteenth-century treaties: the 1842 Treaty of Nankir~g,"~ which ceded the island of Hong Kong (an area of 75.6 square kilometers) to Great Britain following the "Opium War"; the 1860Treaty of Peking,415 which ceded 11.1 square kilometers in the southern part of the Kowlootl Pen431 Hong Kong Government, Hong Kong 1988 (Hong Kong: Government Information Services, 1988) at 302-03. 432 Id. at 49. 433 Id. at 46; Government Information Services, "An Overview of Hong Kong's Economy" (n.d.). 434 Sino-British Treaty of Nanking, signed 29 Aug. 1842, 93 Consolidated Treaty Series 467. 435 Convention of Friendship between China and Great Britain, signed 24 Oct. 1860, 123 Co~lsolidatedTreaty Series 73. Chapter 7 Hong Kong Hong Kong's 5.7 million people live in an area of 1,071 square kilometers , making Hong Kong one of the most densely populated areas of the world; approximately 98% are of Chinese origin, and by the mid1980s nearly 60% had been born in Hong Kong.431 Administered by the United Kingdom since 1842, the territory of Hong Kong consists of Hong Kong and the Lan Tau Islands, the Kowloon Peninsula, and more than 200 smaller islands. It is a major trading and manufacturing hub and the world's third largest financial center, with total banking deposit liabilities of over US$80 billion and a generally unfettered free-market economy.432 Its annual per capita income of approximately US$8,300 is surpassed in Asia only by Singapore and Japan and is almost fifteen times greater than that of the People's Republic of China. Average annual growth in Gross Domestic Product in 1976-1985 was 7.6%, with increases of over 11% in 1986 and 1987.433 The British acquired authority over Hong Kong in a series of three nineteenth-century treaties: the 1842 rrreaty of Nanking,434 which ceded the island of Hong Kong (an area of 75.6 square kilometers) to Great Britain following the "Opium War"; the 1860 Treaty of Peking,435 which ceded 11.1 square kilometers in the southern part of the Kowloon Pen431 Hong Kong Government, Hong Kong 1988 (Hong Kong: Government Information Services, 1988) at 302-03. 432 [d. at 49. 433 [d. at 46; Government Information Services, "An Overview of Hong Kong's Economy" (n.d.). 434 Sino-British Treaty of Nanking, signed 29 Aug. 1842, 93 Consolidated Treaty Series 467. 435 Convention of Friendship between China and Great Britain, signed 24 Oct. 1860, 123 Consolidated Treaty Series 73. 130 Searching for Solutions insula; and a 99-year lease in 1898 of an additional 965.1 square kilometers adjacent to Kowloon, the area which has subsequently become known as the "New Territorie~."~'~ The British have consistently maintained that the first two treaties ceded sovereignty over Hong Kong and Kowloon to Britain, while China has, as consistently, rejected British occupation as illegal and based on the imposition of unequal treaties4" In any event, the expiration in 1997 of the 1898 lease on the New Territories-which constitute over 90% of the total territory of Hong Kong and provide much of the water and electricity to Kowloon and Hong Kong Island-was the motivating force behind the agreement of the British and Chinese governments to alter the status of the entire territory of Hong Kong in 1997. POLITICAUCONSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE438 "Hong Kong has often been described as a...

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