Why did Li Hongzhang sign Hong Kong in 1999?

At first, Britain wanted to set the lease term of Hong Kong as 100 year. It was Li Hongzhang who tried his best to change the lease term to 99 years in the negotiations. It is precisely because of 1 year that Hong Kong's sovereignty can be smoothly returned to China on 1 July 19971day.

According to the international practice at that time, if a territory is occupied by other countries for more than 100 years, then this territory will become uninhabited land after 100 years. At that time, the government of the late Qing Dynasty was devastated, and with the policy of closing the country to the outside world, people at home didn't know much about foreign affairs. At that time, Britain thought of this and thought that the Qing government was not aware of this practice, so on June 9, it proposed a lease of 100 years.

Although this negotiation began in April, and the Qing government is striving for more rights and interests as much as possible, it is inevitable that another unequal treaty will be signed. Fortunately, Li Hongzhang was well aware of this international practice in the face of Britain's forced lease, and he refused to give in on the issue of "99-year lease" to avoid falling into the trap of the British.

Otherwise, after 100 years, Hong Kong will truly become a "land without land", and Britain can rightfully occupy it. At that time, I am afraid that the difficulty of Hong Kong's return to the embrace of the motherland will be infinitely magnified, and the deadline for its return may also be pushed back.