In 1996 the Hong Kong government evicted the last of Rennie's Mill's original residents, ostensibly to make room for new town developments as part of the Tseung Kwan O New Town, but widely believed to be a move to please the Communist Chinese government before the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997. Earlier in 1961, the people of Rennie's Mill were promised by the government that they would be able to stay "indefinitely," and in June 1996, residents petitioned the High Court, where judge Raymond Sears found that "In my judgment, the conduct of the Housing Authority by serving notices to quit, in breach of the clear promises of 1961, amounts to an abuse of power."