British Hong Kong British Hong Kong British Hong Kong denotes the period during which Hong Kong was governed as a colony and British Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom. Excluding the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, Hong Kong was under British rule from 1841 to 1997. The colonial period began with the occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War. The island was ceded by Qing China in the aftermath of the war in 1842 and established as a Crown colony in 1843. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War
Hong Kong Observers Kong government to infiltrate pressure groups and monitor their activities. The greatest emphasis was placed on the Hong Kong Observers. Due to political pressure the committee ceased to exist in 1983. The group's main concern in 1980s was the Sino-British negotiation over the sovereignty of Hong Kong. They called for Hong Kong people to express their views and conducted an opinion poll on Hong Kong future. In 1983 before Beijing and London began negotiation over Hong Kong’s future, Anna Wu led a group of legal confrères to Beijing and met with the then Director of the Hong Kong and Macau