Handover Day

Today is Hong Kong Establishment Day marking the 1997 British handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese. HK was a British colony for 156 years, with the handover coming as a result of the expiration of a 99-year lease, a period that Mainland officials referred to as the 'century of national shame.' On June 30, 1997 A handover ceremony was held presided over by the Prince of Wales and outgoing Governor Chris Patten who said to the assembled, "Our own nation's contribution here was to provide the scaffolding that enabled the people of Hong Kong to ascend: the rule of law, clean and light-handed government, the values of a free society. The beginnings of representative government and democratic accountability." It is unclear if he was referring to bamboo scaffolding, however.

At midnight the Union Jack dropped to the strains of "Rule Britannia" and the Chinese flag was raised. Patten greeted Chinese President Jiang Zemin with "Welcome to Hong Kong," before he and Prince Charles boarded the HMY Britannia and sailed out of Victoria Harbour under the watchful eye of Chinese warships. At midnight thousands of Chinese PLA troops began flooding across the border, HK's elected legislature was disbanded in favor of Beijing appointed officials, and HK took on the look and feel of its new patrons. The royal crest was removed from gov't buildings, police bobbies gave way to the newly Chinese HK uniform, and red phonebooths, mailboxes and doubledecker busses began their phase out.

So, with our own Independence Day this Saturday I suppose it makes for a pretty tough week for the ol' British colonial pride.