Handover ceremony of Hong Kong in 1997

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Handover ceremony of Hong Kong in 1997: The Union Jack lowered and the Flag of China raised.

The handover ceremony of Hong Kong in 1997 officially marked the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China. An internationally televised event, the ceremony was held on the night of June 30, 1997 at the new wing of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) in Wan Chai.

1 The ceremony
2 Reactions
3 Reference
4 External link

[edit] The ceremony

The persons attending the ceremony as representatives are:

For the People's Republic of China

Jiang Zemin, President of the People's Republic of China
Li Peng, Premier of the People's Republic of China
Tung Chee-hwa, Chief Executive of Hong Kong
Qian Qichen, Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China
Zhang Wannian, Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission

For the United Kingdom

As midnight approached, Prince Charles read a farewell speech on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. Moments before midnight, the Union Jack and the Hong Kong colonial flag were slowly lowered to the British anthem God Save the Queen, symbolizing the end of British colonial rule in Hong Kong. At promptly midnight, 1 July 1997, the flag of the People's Republic of China and the Hong Kong SAR flag are flown to the Chinese anthem March of the Volunteers. Jiang Zemin then gave a speech expressing his optimism for the "one country, two systems" implementation after the switch.

After the handover ceremony, there was a swear-in ceremony in the HKCEC for various Hong Kong SAR officials including Tung Chee-hwa, Anson Chan, Donald Tsang, Elsie Leung, and others. The British representatives did not attend the swear-in ceremony. Prince Charles and Chris Patten, with his family, bid the citizens of Hong Kong farewell in the Tamar site and boarded the HM Yacht Britannia on its last voyage back to Britain. The boat was escorted by HMS Chatham (F87). Tony Blair and other British officials, on the other hand, went back to Britain by plane.

[edit] Reactions

In 2005, the British Mail on Sunday revealed Prince Charles's diary entries, where he referred to the transfer as the "Great Chinese Takeaway", and the Chinese officials as "appalling old waxworks". In another reported extract, Prince Charles described the ceremony as an "awful Soviet-style" performance and dismissed the speech by Jiang Zemin as "propaganda", complete with loud cheering "by the bussed-in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text." He also ridicules the People's Liberation Army's goosesteps in the ceremony and claims his trip on the HMY Britannia out of Hong Kong was closely watched by Chinese warships.