THE British had Hong Kong as a possession for 156 years. It acquired Hong Kong island in 1841, the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860; and most memorably in the annals of history, the 99-year lease on the New Territories in 1898. When the handover came in 1997, China inherited a global city colored by Britain’s cultural values, a city at the crossroads of east and west — supported by Western legal systems and infrastructure.