Liberalism in Hong Kong as the Chinese Language Movement, the anti-corruption movement, defend the Diaoyu Islands movement and so on, in which many of the student leaders became the backbones of the contemporary pro-democracy movement. In the early years of the 1980s, Hong Kong politics was dominated by the issue of the sovereignty of Hong Kong after 1997. Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader of the Chinese Communist government insisted Chinese sovereignty of Hong Kong, while the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher insisted the legality of the Treaty of Nanking. Some Hong Kong liberal intellectuals see it as an opportunity to change the colonial status
British Hong Kong franchise to include them. The Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed by both the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Premier of the People's Republic of China on 19 December 1984 in Beijing. The Declaration entered into force with the exchange of instruments of ratification on 27 May 1985 and was registered by the People's Republic of China and United Kingdom governments at the United Nations on 12 June 1985. In the Joint Declaration, the People's Republic of China Government stated that it had decided to resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong (including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon,