Hong Kong goes home
Midnight, June 30, 1997: the moment for which much of Hong Kong had been waiting. The Union Flag, which had flown over Hong Kong since 1841, was lowered. As it came down flagpoles all over the territory, the red flag of China rose, and the world watched: thousands of journalists swarmed around the Convention and Exhibition Centre, where President Jiang Zemin and The Prince of Wales presided at the handover ceremony. On Victoria Harbour, the last governor, Chris Patten, was aboard the royal yacht Britannia as it sailed slowly away.
Relations between the last colonial governor of Hong Kong and China had degenerated steadily. Mainland officials were enraged by his attempts to introduce broad election changes and his refusal to pay heed to China's points of view.
In 1993, year after his arrival, the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Lu Ping, accused Patten of sabotaging co-operation with China and branded him 'a man of eternal guilt'.
Heaping abuse on Patten in May 1993, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily accused him of 'strutting like a whore' in front of President Bill Clinton during a visit to the United States and of being 'a prostitute who expects a monument to her chastity'.
'Throughout the ages prostitutes have come to a bad end,' the paper warned darkly.
But June 30 was a time to celebrate. Watching television in homes, clubs, bars and restaurants throughout Hong Kong, and on the mainland, millions of people saw history being made. A handful of demonstrators clashed with police in Wan Chai, but at the border, as soldiers of the People's Liberation Army came to replace the departing British garrison, there was a warm welcome.