Hong Kong SAR Flag, used since 1997.
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港; literally: "Fragrant Harbour" or "Incense Harbour"), officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory south to Mainland China at the Pearl River Estuary of the Asia Pacific. With 7.2 million residents of various nationalities in a total land and sea area of 2,754 km2, Hong Kong is the world's fourth most densely populated sovereign state or territory.
History[]
After the First Opium War (1839-42), Hong Kong became a British colony with perpetual cession of Hong Kong Island, and then the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860. In 1898 the New Territories were leased, for a 99-year period. The colony was briefly occupied by Japan during World War Two, but was retaken in 1945. In the 1980's negotiations began between the United Kingdom and PRC, which resulted in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, finally resulting in the 1997 transfer of sovereignty, where Hong Kong became a Chinese Special Administrative Region, with nominally high autonomy., where Hong Kong, under the "one country, two systems", maintains its legal, security, economic, customs and immigration systems, whilst the State Council of China is responsible for military defence and foreign affairs.
However, on the 14th July 2015, the Chinese National People's Congress approved new Restriction laws upon Hong Kong. Many Hong Kongers saw this as a step in further integrating and annexing Hong Kong to China, and on the 15th protests broke out. On the 4th of August, the Provisional Government of Hong Kong was established with a claim presiding over the entire Special Administrative Region.
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