SHENZHEN, China — At the stroke of midnight on July 1, 1997, the British flag over Hong Kong was lowered and the Chinese flag was raised at a ceremony marking the end of more than a century and a half of British colonial rule. Chinese President Jiang Zemin was on hand, as was Britain's Prince Charles.
But according to the South China Morning Post, new textbooks for use in Hong Kong contend the territory was never a British colony. The reason: China never recognized the treaties that ceded it to Britain.
