搜尋結果
2024年5月11日 · Greta Thunberg (born January 3, 2003, Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish environmental activist who worked to address the problem of climate change, founding (2018) a movement known as Fridays for Future (also called School Strike for Climate). Thunberg’s mother was an opera singer, and her father was an actor.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
White Island volcanic eruption of 2019, volcanic eruption on December 9, 2019, on Whakaari/White Island, located off the coast of eastern North Island, New Zealand, which resulted in the deaths of 22 individuals and injured numerous others. At the time of the eruption, 47 people (adventure tourists and guides) were on the uninhabited island.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Overview
- The British crown colony of Hong Kong
- The handover ceremony and the imposition of Chinese rule
handover of Hong Kong, transfer of the British crown colony of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, ending 156 years of British rule. After a formal handover ceremony on July 1, 1997, the colony became the Hong Kong special administrative region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China.
The handover ceremony culminated a 13-year transition that had been initiated by the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong, signed by the heads of the two governments in December 1984. The agreement stipulated that under Chinese rule the HKSAR would enjoy a high degree of autonomy, except in matters of foreign relations and defense, and that the social and economic systems as well as the lifestyle in Hong Kong would remain unchanged for 50 years after 1997. Many observers, however, expressed considerable skepticism about China’s pledge to abide by the “one country, two systems” plan outlined in the agreement. They feared that China would drastically curtail the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents. This prediction came true in 2020, with the passage by Beijing of a security law that effectively ended the “one country, two systems” arrangement.
Great Britain acquired Hong Kong Island from China in 1842, when the Treaty of Nanjing was signed at the end of the First Opium War (1839–42). Unsatisfied with incomplete control of the harbour, the British forced China to cede the Kowloon Peninsula south of what is now Boundary Street and Stonecutters (Ngong Shuen) Island (now joined to the mainland) less than 20 years later, after the Second Opium War (1856–60). By the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, the New Territories together with 235 islands were leased to Britain for 99 years from July 1, 1898. After the communists took power in China in 1949, Hong Kong became a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing communist rule. In the following decades the Chinese government insisted that the treaties giving Britain sovereignty over Hong Kong were invalid.
Although in 1984 Britain and China agreed on the terms of the handover of Hong Kong, Sino-British cooperation during the transition period deteriorated after the appointment in 1992 of Chris Patten as Hong Kong’s last colonial governor. Sharply breaking with past practice, Patten initiated a series of political reforms designed to give the people of Hong Kong a greater voice in government via democratic elections to the Legislative Council (LegCo). China’s crackdown on the student-led democracy movement in 1989 fed anxiety in Hong Kong regarding the handover and led to the political awakening of a previously quiescent population. Beijing made efforts to stonewall Patten’s reforms, which it condemned as a betrayal of London’s earlier promises to manage the transition as an exercise in which Hong Kong had no voice of its own. When Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, led by barrister Martin Lee, routed pro-Beijing politicians in the 1995 LegCo elections, Beijing denounced Patten and began a series of strong measures aimed at reestablishing its influence.
Pomp and pageantry marked the formal handover ceremony, which began on the evening of June 30, 1997. In attendance were numerous dignitaries from around the world, including Pres. Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng of China, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Charles, who gave a short speech in which he congratulated the colony on its political, economic, and social successes, told the people of Hong Kong, “We shall not forget you, and we shall watch with the closest interest as you embark on this new era of your remarkable history.” Jiang, the first mainland Chinese head of state to visit Hong Kong since 1842, reassured residents that China would carry out the “one country, two systems” plan of local autonomy, which had been contrived principally by Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. Deng died on February 19, 1997, just four and a half months before the power transfer he had hoped to witness.
Exclusive academic rate for students! Save 67% on Britannica Premium.
Learn More
On the morning of the handover, several thousand specially trained troops of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army were deployed in Hong Kong as garrison forces symbolizing the reassertion of China’s sovereignty. Chinese authorities did not attempt to suppress several rallies outside the LegCo building on June 30–July 1, even when Lee addressed thousands of demonstrators from a balcony after LegCo had officially been dissolved. The protests proceeded peacefully.
Tung, in his first speech as chief executive, skirted the issues of political rights and democracy, choosing to espouse “traditional Chinese values.” He also focused on mundane but important issues such as housing and education, vowing to increase the rate of home ownership in Hong Kong to 70 percent over the next 10 years and to provide better training for teachers. Tung counted on enhanced social programs, including government payments to the elderly poor, and continuing prosperity to marginalize political opposition to his new administration. Most citizens of Hong Kong, of whom 95 percent were ethnic Chinese, appeared ready to give him the benefit of the doubt, at least for the time being. Tung and the provisional legislature prepared for the first post-handover legislative elections in mid-1998 by reworking the rules of the political game. On July 8 it was announced that only 20 of the 60 legislative seats would be filled via a system of proportional representation. The remaining 40 seats would be chosen by electoral colleges and an election committee, as they were in the period prior to the implementation of Patten’s reforms. This change virtually ensured the dominance of Hong Kong’s business and professional elite, most of whose members valued stability—which they identified with their own power—over democratic representation.
Jiang hailed the “return of Hong Kong to the motherland” as a great historical event that presaged Taiwan’s eventual reunification with mainland China. Both Taiwan’s ruling Nationalist Party and its main opposition, the Democratic Progressive Party, vigorously rejected Jiang’s assertion and vowed to resist Beijing’s attempts to exert pressure on the island nation. In late June Taiwan conducted live-fire military exercises, which were intended as a signal to China that Taiwan would resist any attempts at reunification. On June 28 approximately 70,000 people in Taiwan attended a “Say No to China” anti-reunification rally. Although the Taiwanese government encouraged China to protect freedom in Hong Kong, it made it clear that Taiwan would not be absorbed in a similar manner.
2024年4月30日 · Transpiration was first measured by Stephen Hales (1677–1761), an English botanist and physiologist. He noticed that plants “imbibe” and “perspire” significant amounts of water compared to animals and created a novel method for measuring the emission of water vapour by plants.
Japan - Culture, Traditions, Religion: It is common for Western observers of contemporary Japan to emphasize its great economic achievement without equal regard to cultural attributes. Yet Japanese cultural distinctiveness and the manner in which it developed are instructive in understanding how it is that Japan came to be the first non-Western country to attain great-power status. The ...
2024年5月12日 · Amazon Rainforest, large tropical rainforest occupying the Amazon basin in northern South America and covering an area of 2,300,000 square miles (6,000,000 square km). It is the world’s richest and most-varied biological reservoir, containing several million species.
6 天前 · Black mangroves (Avicennia germinans). The black mangrove, usually of moderate height, sometimes grows 18 to 21 metres (59 to 69 feet) tall. The leaves are 5 to 7.5 cm (2 to 3 inches) long, opposite, oblong or spear-shaped; the upper surface is green and glossy, the lower surface whitish or grayish. The white flowers are small, inconspicuous ...
