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Hong Kong Basic Law

The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is a Chinese national law that describes the system of government of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region. With nine chapters, 160 articles, and three annexes, the law implements the basic policies declared by China in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration that would apply to Hong Kong once British colonial rule ended in 1997.

History
Qing China ceded Hong Kong Island and parts of the Kowloon Peninsula to the United Kingdom after it was defeated in the Opium Wars of the mid-19th century. The British government then obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898, which expanded the colony of Hong Kong for the final time. Chinese governments following the Qing Empire's collapse in 1911 refer to these agreements as "unequal treaties" and were invalid. In 1982, Chinese and British officials separately began to meet Hong Kong business and political elites in Hong Kong. In September, Deng Xiaoping met Thatcher in Beijing and told her that China's sovereignty over Hong Kong was not negotiable, but both agreed to begin diplomatic discussions.