[20201223]IF11711_香港：2021的关键问题.pdf

https:/crsreports.congress.gov December 23, 2020Hong Kong: Key Issues in 2021The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR, or Hong Kong) is a city located off the southern coast of Guangdong Province, Peoples Republic of China (PRC or China). More than 90% of Hong Kongs population is ethnically Chinese. The first language of the vast majority is Cantonese, a variety of Chinese different from what is spoken in most of the PRC. Under the provisions of a 1984 international treaty known as the “Joint Declaration,” sovereignty over Hong Kong transferred from the United Kingdom to the PRC on July 1, 1997. In the Joint Declaration, China pledged the former British colony “will enjoy a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defence affairs,” and “will be vested with executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication.” China also promised that the “rights and freedoms, including those of the person, of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of travel, of movement, of correspondence, of strike, of choice of occupation, of academic research and of religious belief will be ensured by law.” The Joint Declaration also required t