Relations between the government of Hong Kong SAR of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Taiwan Area of the Republic of China (ROC) encompass both when Hong Kong was under British rule or when the Republic of China controlled mainland China and afterwards the ROC fled to Taiwan. This is also a part of the Cross-strait relations.
History
Timeline
Early contacts Before 1842, both regions were part of the Qing dynasty; in 1842, Hong Kong Island was ceded to the British Empire as a result of the First Opium War, and in 1895, Taiwan was ceded to the Empire of Japan as a result of the First Sino-Japanese War. Sun Yat-sen was a student in Hong Kong in the late 1800s and believed that the Qing dynasty's ineffectiveness and loss in the First Sino-Japanese War necessitated a revolution to replace Chinese dynasties with a modern republic. In 1888, he was pictured in Hong Kong as a member of the Four Bandits, a group that met to discuss overthrowing the Qing dynasty, and in 1894, he began the formation of the Revive China Society to overthrow the Qing dynasty. On 21 February 1895, while at a Revive China Society meeting in Hong Kong, Lu Haodong presented his Blue Sky with a White Sun design, which became the emblem of the Republic of China. The Revive China Society was headquartered at 13 Staunton Street in Hong Kong, and in 1905 it was merged with other groups to form the Tongmenghui. This organization had wide support among Chinese, and played a key role in uprisings started by revolutionaries, including the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, which overthrew the Qing dynasty. After the success of the Xinhai Revolution, Sun Yat-sen declared the establishment of the Republic of China on 1 January 1912, and was inaugurated as the first provisional president. Later that same year in August 1912, the Tongmenghui merged with other groups to create the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), and Sun Yat-sen was chosen as its leader.
Sun Yat-sen returned to Hong Kong in 1923 to visit the University of Hong Kong, which had incorporated the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese as its medical school, of which Sun Yat-sen was an early alumnus. During his visit at HKU, he gave a speech and declared Hong Kong's inspiration to him in the revolutions that eventually created the Republic of China: "That is the answer to the question, where did I get my revolutionary ideas: it is entirely in Hong Kong." In addition to being the origin of his revolutionary ideas, Hong Kong also offered protection to some of his family members; Sun Yat-sen's mother, Lady Yang, resided with his eldest brother, Dezhang, in Kowloon City, after Sun Yat-sen was placed on a wanted list by the Qing government. With Sun Yat-sen's death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became leader of the KMT and Sun Yat-sen's successor, eventually unifying China under the Nationalist government in 1928.
The United States and decolonization Longstanding United States policy held the belief that China should not be colonized; the United States, in 1899 had advocated the Open Door Policy, which communicated that China should not be partitioned and colonized. The Nine-Power Treaty in 1922, signed by the British, affirmed the Open Door Policy and territorial integrity of China. In July 1940, Winston Churchill declared in Parliament that "We desire to see China's status and integrity preserved, and as was indicated in our Note of 14th January, 1939, we are ready to negotiate with the Chinese Government, after the conclusion of peace, the abolition of extraterritorial rights, the rendition of concessions and the revision of treaties on the basis of reciprocity and equality," affirming territorial integrity and relinquishment of extraterritorial rights in China. The idea of territorial integrity and decolonization was further encapsulated in the August 1941 Atlantic Charter statement, issued by Franklin Roosevelt (who was staunchly against colonialism) and Winston Churchill, stipulating that "territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned." Though Winston Churchill did not want British colonies to decolonize, he agreed to the Atlantic Charter's decolonization provisions "to get the Americans into the war" with military aid on the side of the Allies. On 1 January 1942, the Declaration of the United Nations was signed by the Big Four (the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Republic of China), stipulating that the Atlantic Charter's pledges should be upheld, which later became the basis of the Charter of the United Nations in 1945.
Hong Kong during World War II The Nationalist government had requested from the British that British pilots serve as advisors in the Nationalist air force, and also requested that the Nationalists be allowed to create a secret airplane factory in Hong Kong; the British denied those requests. In January 1941, as the Japanese military advanced in mainland China towards Hong Kong, UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill was reluctant to defend the colony, and said that defensive troops should be reduced to a "symbolical scale" there. By the summer of 1941, the British and Nationalists, under Chiang Kai-shek, had a military cooperation agreement, agreeing that if Hong Kong were attacked by the Japanese, then the Nationalists would attack the Japanese from the rear and provide relief to the British.
Chan Chak was the Nationalist government's representative in Hong Kong when the Japanese attacked on 8 December 1941. Previous to that date, the Second Sino-Japanese War had waged on for several years without the Republic of China ever declaring war on Japan; following the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, Chiang Kai-shek declared war on Japan the next day, on 9 December 1941. Additionally on 9 December 1941, Chiang Kai-shek ordered 3 Nationalist corps, directed by General Yu Hanmou, to head towards Hong Kong. The plan was for the Nationalist army to fight the Japanese from the rear on 1 January 1942, but the Japanese had already broken Hong Kong's defense before the Nationalists could get in position to attack.
With a quick victory by the Japanese against the weakly-defended colony in December 1941, the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began, and both Hong Kong and Taiwan were subjects of the Empire of Japan.
Also that same month in December 1941, the United States entered World War II, several months after issuing the Atlantic Charter and having Churchill agree to decolonize. Despite the weak protection of Hong Kong and agreements by the British to the Nine-Power Treaty, Atlantic Charter, and Declaration of the United Nations, the British refused to decolonize and have Hong Kong handed over to the Republic of China.
In January 1942, Chiang Kai-shek became supreme commander of the Allied powers' China Burma India Theater, and he considered Hong Kong under his command, rather than under the British. The British agreed that Hong Kong was "within the operational sphere of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek." Chiang began to think about repealing the unequal treaties, as the myth of British invincibility had been shattered, and instructed ambassador Wellington Koo to find more information on the British's position on the future of Hong Kong. The British Colonial Office said that "the arrangements existing before the Japanese occupation would not be restored," signaling a potential retrocession of Hong Kong to the Republic of China.
In late 1942, the Republic of China repealed the unequal treaties and began negotiations with the United Kingdom on the establishment of a new, fairer treaty. Chiang Kai-shek attempted to put the issue of Hong Kong onto the two parties' agenda, suggesting that the New Territories should be returned to the Republic of China along with the other foreign concessions. On 13 November 1942, TV Soong met with Horace James Seymour to ask for the retrocession of the New Territories. The Nationalists were careful to ask for the New Territories rather than all of Hong Kong, knowing that the New Territories was deeply integrated and vital to the rest of Hong Kong, and a return of the New Territories would make the rest of Hong Kong worthless to the British. This was fiercely rejected by Winston Churchill, and the United Kingdom also demanded that the Republic of China give their written consent that the New Territories concession was not included within the unequal treaties, or else they would refuse to sign, and so the Republic of China was forced to drop the concession of New Territories from the agenda. In 1943, the two sides signed the Sino-British New Equal Treaty, with the Republic of China securing the right to raise the issue of Hong Kong and the New Territories on a later occasion; on 11 January 1943, TV Soong sent a note to Horace James Seymour, stating that "the Chinese Government reserve[d] its right to propose [Hong Kong's leased territories] for discussion at a later date." A day later on 12 January 1943, TV Soong held a press conference where he explained the agreement.
After World War II
Before the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt promised Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, that Hong Kong would be restored to Republic of China control. The United States sent ambassador Patrick Hurley to London in April 1945 and asked that the British return Hong Kong to the Republic of China, to which Winston Churchill said it would only happen "over my dead body." The British previously agreed that Hong Kong was "within the operational sphere of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek," and US General Order No. 1 also stipulated that the Japanese surrender to Chiang. When news broke that the Japanese had surrendered, Chiang ordered the Nationalist Thirteenth Corps under Shi Jue, less than 300 miles away from Hong Kong, to liberate Hong Kong. Additionally, the Nationalist New First Corps under Sun Liren was also less than 300 miles away, and was ordered by Chiang to liberate Canton (Guangzhou); combined, the forces numbered 60,000 soldiers.
However, at the end of the war, the British moved quickly to regain control of Hong Kong in August 1945, preventing the unification of Hong Kong and the Republic of China (ROC). After the loss in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China government, started by Sun Yat-sen, fled to Taiwan in the Great Retreat. Shortly after, on 6 January 1950, the UK recognized the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the government of China due to economic interests, and blocked the Republic of China government from participating in the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951, which introduced the issue of which government Taiwan was to be surrendered to. In 1957, UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan had a secret agreement with the United States, where the United States agreed to defend Hong Kong with the British as a "joint defense problem" in case it was attacked by communist China. In exchange, the British pledged to not push for communist China's membership in the United Nations, which would leave the UN seat with Taiwan. However, in 1971, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 was supported by the British and passed, recognizing the PRC as the legitimate government of China in the UN rather than the Republic of China. Afterwards, the British and People's Republic of China began negotiations on the handover of Hong Kong, ultimately sealing Hong Kong's future with the PRC rather than the ROC.