The Sino-British Joint Declaration signed on Dec. 19, 1984 in Beijing – and the 1990 Hong Kong mini-constitution known as the Basic Law – promised that Hong Kong would retain its legislative system, rights and freedom for fifty years, as a special administrative region of China, while the central government in Beijing controlled Hong Kong’s foreign affairs. Beijing’s retention of control over legal interpretation of the Basic Law, which had promised universal suffrage, planted the seed of future protests.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Paul Eckert.