The 99-year lease: Owning the future without selling the nation

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 valu…

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