Title: Sino-British Joint Declaration
Content: perceived infringements in the HKSAR by mainland China, the British Foreign Office announced that Chinese officials now treat the Joint Declaration as "void". The background of the Sino–British Joint Declaration was the pending expiration of the lease of the New Territories on 1 July 1997. The lease was negotiated between the UK and the Guangxu Emperor of China, and was for a period of 99 years starting from 1 July 1898 under the Second Convention of Peking. At the time of the lease signing, Hong Kong Island had already been ceded to the UK in perpetuity under the Treaty of

Title: Percy Cradock
Content: 1898. Since the 99-year lease would expire roughly twenty-five years after in 1997, they began to notice that land leases in the New Territories approved by the colonial government might not subsist beyond 1997. To test the attitude of the Chinese government to the validity of the leases, the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, accompanied by the Senior Unofficial Member of the Executive Council, Sir Yuet-keung Kan, and the Political Advisor to the Governor, (later Sir) David Wilson, accepted an invitation from the Chinese government to visit Peking in 1979. The purpose of the visit appeared highly sensitive to the British

Title: British National (Overseas)
Content: to the BN(O) status can be found in "section 4 of the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986", as amended by "section 2 of the Hong Kong (British Nationality) (Amendment) Order 1993". By the late 1970s, it had become a public concern in British Hong Kong that the 99-year land lease of the New Territories, a major region north of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, to the United Kingdom would expire in around 20 years. Governor MacLehose first raised this question during his office in Hong Kong. The public concern immediately resulted in a series of negotiations between the Chinese

Title: British Hong Kong
Content: and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. Although Hong Kong Island and Kowloon were ceded in perpetuity, the leased area, which comprised 92 per cent of the territory, had such a vital role in the economy that Britain agreed to transfer the entire colony to China upon the expiration of that lease in 1997. The transfer has been considered by many as marking the end of the British Empire. In 1836, the Manchu Qing government undertook a major policy review of the opium trade. Lin Zexu volunteered to take on the

Title: History of Hong Kong
Content: expired. China promised to implement a "One Country, Two Systems" regime, under which for fifty years Hong Kong citizens could continue to practice capitalism and political freedoms forbidden on the mainland. So, on July 1, 1997, the lease ended and the government of Great Britain transferred control of Hong Kong and surrounding territories to the People's Republic of China. Hong Kong was occupied by Japan from 23 December 1941 to 15 August 1945. The period, called '3 years and 8 months' halted the economy. The British, Canadians, Indians and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Forces resisted the Japanese invasion commanded

Question: In which year did Britain's lease on Hong Kong officially expire?
Answer: 1997