According to Time Magazine of October 17, 1986,
her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had long voiced a
desire to visit the People’s Republic of China. But as
long as Britain ruled a piece of Chinese territory, the
crown colony of Hong Kong, such a journey was
impossible. The 1984 Sino-British agreement
returning Hong Kong to China in 1997 provided the
price of admission (p. 22).
Returning Hong Kong to the mainland was no easy
task, for it amounted to losing a jewel from the
British Crown, but it was clear that the British
Monarch’s desire to visit China was not
unconnected with Britain’s avidity for trade with
that country and, obviously, the ensuing gains
would be immense. Relations between Britain and
China had been uneasy over the last hundred years,
but with the Queen’s historic visit—the first ever
made to China by a member of a British Royal
family—the gates to trade were thrown open. A
successful piece of diplomacy, it paved the way to
an annual trade agreement of over one and a half
billion dollars.
A jewel may have been lost from the crown, but the
subsequent benefits will be enormous. Clearly, we
have to give in order to take. That is the way of the
world.
--Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
( Ref - The Moral Vision)
