580 { China’s Quest
weakness of China’s Qing government had been revealed by its incompetent
conduct of the 1894–1895 war with Japan.^3 Following this monumental dis-
play of Chinese weakness, various powers began scrambling to stake out an
expanded position in China, a process that became known as “carving of the
(Chinese) melon.” Britain’s demand for the New Territories was part of that
“carving.” The New Territories made up 90 percent of Hong Kong’s total land
area. The ninety-nine-year lease on the New Territories would expire on July
1, 1997. Figure 22-1 illustrates Hong Kong and its environs.
From the standpoint of the CCP, the treaties imposed on China during
its Century of National Humiliation were “unequal,” imposed by force and
threat, and, as such, legally null and void, without any validity whatsoever.
From this revolutionary perspective, Hong Kong, every part of it, was Chinese
territory stolen by British imperialism, and should return to Chinese control
as part of the revival of China’s greatness and blotting out the shame of its
national humiliation. When and how that was done was a matter for China’s
government to decide. In the event, after 1949 the PRC waited forty-eightSouth China SeaHong Kong
HarborPearl River
EstuaryPe
arl(^) R
ive
r
Huizhou
Dongguan
Humen (bridge
and Opium War
museum)
Guangzhou
MACAO
HONG KONG
CHINA
Lantau
Airport
Shenzhen Yantian Port
Huiyang
Zhuhai
Zhongshan
Hong Kong
Lantau Island Island
Kowloon
e New
Territories
F IGU R E 22-1 Hong Kong and the Pearl River Estuary