Thread: Hong Kong Was Better Under the British

Originally Posted by thegent

I rather think you are somewhat ignorant of the reality. Hong Kong and Kowloon is essentially a city utterly dependent upon the New Territories and mainland China for its survival. That is from where its water and food comes from. The lease for the New Territories expired in 1997. No New Territories = no food. It's hardly rocket science.

This is how it was spun, but food, power and water were not really the issue.

After all Singapore manages perfectly well importing resources.

Problem A) would have been that Boundary Street would have been enforced as the frontier, and many Hong Kongers currently live beyond it.

Problem B) was that China wouldn't have accepted anything other than Britain renouncing its permanent interest in HK island and the Kowloon peninsula. Military action was rumoured to have been threatened by Deng Xiaoping.

If the New Territories had been ceded on a freehold basis rather than a 99 year lease, Hong Kong would be an independent republic now, like Singapore, ( or a renegade province like Taiwan). History and perception would have unfolded differently. As it is Hong Kongers have never shed their 'slave mentalilty' and never matured politically.