BY ANASTASIA CHOO

The 1^st of July marks the 20^th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain back to its motherland, China. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government has organised an array of celebrations to run on the theme of “Together, Progress, Opportunity.”  The $640 million HK dollars taxpayer funded extravaganza is to show the world how successful ‘one country, two systems’ has been.  President Xi Jinping will visit Hong Kong to carry out official ceremonies such as the swearing in of Hong Kong’s newly selected Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

For anyone not versed in Hong Kong’s history: Hong Kong was ceded to the British following the first Anglo-Chinese War in 1839–42 by the Qing Dynasty. The Brits had been exporting opium from India to China, illegally.  After the Chinese publicly destroyed their stocks in Canton, the Nanjing Treaty was signed with China, stating that Hong…