Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, pledging to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
On December 19, 1984, Thatcher and Premier Zhao Ziyang signed the formal Sino-British Joint Declaration at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. That month, on a visit to Hong Kong, Thatcher told the city's political elite that Britain would take action if the Sino-British Joint Declaration was violated. It is a 1984 agreement reached by Britain and China to determine the future of Hong Kong. The two countries agreed that China would retake sovereignty of Hong Kong, which Britain had seized during the Opium War in 1840, on July 1, 1997. On December 19, 1984, Thatcher and Premier Zhao Ziyang signed the formal Sino-British Joint Declaration at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
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