Hong Kong profile – BBC News

Some key dates in Hong Kong’s history:

214BC – Qin dynasty incorporates Hong Kong into China.

1513AD – Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares is the earliest European visitor. Portuguese merchants establish before being expelled after military clashes in the 1520s.

c. 1549 – Portuguese-Chinese trade relations are re-established. Portugal acquires a permanent lease for Macau in 1557.

1757 – Qing authorities establish the Canton System to regulate foreign trade more strictly. To pay for Chinese commodities like tea, silk and porcelain, British traders sell large amounts of Indian opium to China. Faced with a drug crisis, Qing officials take ever more aggressive actions to halt the opium trade.

1839 – China rejects proposals to legalise and tax opium, destroys opium stockpiles and halts foreign trade, triggering a British military response and the First Opium War.

1841 – China is defeated and cedes Hong Kong Island to Britain. Fighting continues for another year before the 1842 Treaty of Nanking.

1856-60 – Second Opium War sees China cede more territory in the Hong Kong area to Britain.

1898 – China leases the New Territories together with 235 islands to Britain for 99 years.

1941-45 – Japan occupies Hong Kong during World War Two.

1950s – Hong Kong enjoys economic revival based on light industries such as textiles.

1956 – The Double Ten riots due to escalating provocations between Nationalist and Communist groups on Kowloon sees 59 people killed.

1967 – Large-scale anti-government riots partially inspired by earlier successful anti-colonial demonstrations in Portuguese Macau. More than 50 people are killed.

1970s – Hong Kong is established as an “Asian Tiger” – one of the region’s economic powerhouses – with a thriving economy based on high-technology industries.

1997 – Hong Kong is handed back to the Chinese authorities after more than 150 years of British control.

2009 – Tens of thousands of people attend a vigil in Hong Kong on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The territory is the only part of China to mark the anniversary.

2014 – Pro-democracy demonstrators occupy the city centre for weeks in protest at the Chinese government’s decision to limit voters’ choices in the 2017 Hong Kong leadership election. More than 100,000 people took to the streets at the height of the Occupy Central protests.

2017 – Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Hong Kong to swear in Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and uses his visit to warn against any attempt to undermine China’s influence over the special administrative region.

2019 – Hong Kong sees anti-government and pro-democracy protests, involving violent clashes with police, against a proposal to allow extradition to mainland China.

2021 – Beijing amends Hong Kong’s electoral system, reducing the number of directly elected seats in the Legislative Council and requiring all candidates be vetted and approved by a Beijing-appointed committee.