INTRODUCTION: Located on the southeast coast of China, Hong Kong is one of the world's major financial centres. It is consistently ranked as a highly competitive economic region. Historical shifts involving Chinese immigration and British colonization left the city with a unique "East-meets-West" heritage. Chinese and English are the official languages of Hong Kong, with English being widely used in the government and by the legal, educational, professional, and business sectors. After the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to China in 1997, Hong Kong became a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, ruled under the principle of "one country, two systems". This principle ensures that Hong Kong maintains separate political and economic systems from those of China, and that it will have a high degree of autonomy until 2047 (i.e., 50 years after the transfer of sovereignty).
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