Hong Kong People and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, 1978-1984

In the early 1980s, British and Chinese officials engaged in confidential, bilateral negotiations over the future of Hong Kong. These talks produced the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration under which Britain agreed to hand Hong Kong to China in 1997, effectively marking the end of the British Empire. In the existing literature, the Sino-British negotiations have been examined the perspective of diplomacy and interactions between officials. The role of Hong Kong people in influencing the talks has gone almost entirely unnoticed.
This thesis examines how Hong Kong people attempted to influence British, Chinese and colonial officials during the Sino-British negotiations. It ranges across different segments of Hong Kong society including businesspeople, the Governor’s appointed advisors, representative bodies, pressure groups, student unions, residents’ associations and more. It identifies successful and unsuccessful attempts to shape the negotiations, examines why some Hong Kong people were effective while others were not, and traces the influence of Hong Kong people on the Joint Declaration.
This thesis contributes to the literature on Hong Kong’s handover by examining the underexplored yet pivotal role played by Hong Kong people. In so doing, it adds to research on the influence of the citizens of colonies on processes of decolonisation, international negotiation and diplomacy. In recent years, at least a million Hong Kong people have shown their dissent towards the implementation of the Joint Declaration through protests. An officially mandated version of Hong Kong’s history is writing over the colonial past and placing primary sources at threat of destruction. This thesis is therefore a timely re-examination of the Sino-British negotiations that puts Hong Kong people at the centre of the most pivotal event in their city’s history.