
Hong Kong government granted US consulate a rare 999-year lease in the 1990s - dosy
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2158709/us-consulate-hong-kong-staying-put-billion-dollar-site-lease-has
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evadne
It came to mind that Hong Kong was “leased” for 99 years too.

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DonaldFisk
The New Territories were leased for 99 years in the 1898 Second Convention of
Peking. Hong Kong Island was ceded in perpetuity in the 1842 Treaty of
Nanking. Kowloon, except for the walled city, and Stonecutter's Island, were
ceded in perpetuity in the 1860 Convention of Peking, Article 6.

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jobigoud
> Kowloon, except for the walled city

I thought Kowloon _was_ the walled city.

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emmanuel_1234
Nope. The Opium wars and the subsequent status of the Kowloon Walled City are
really cool stories. Funny to think that the fortunes of today's Hong Kong got
rich selling drug.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City)

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yardie
It's purely symbolic. A lease is still a contract between 2 parties. If one or
both cease to exist so goes the lease.

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ceejayoz
That may not always be the case. It's not like Castro was a big fan of
Guantanamo Bay...

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refurb
Great point. The final arbitrator of all contracts is the threat of violence.
If you can't back it up, it doesn't matter what the contract says.

Also the Mexican land grants in California. The US still respects the terms of
those agreements.

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bydo
Eminent domain exists and is frequently used in China (as in the US). Do the
terms of this lease somehow exempt the US consulate from it?

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aplummer
They are saying that the nature of the party (global superpower) is the final
exemption criteria for every kind of obligation if you play that card.

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bmcusick
My god. It's an actual, blatant violation of the Rule Against Perpetuities.
[0] And here I thought I'd never use this knowledge outside of a Property Law
exam.

0\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_against_perpetuities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_against_perpetuities)

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dosy
Very interesting. But can lifetime be measured on “corporate persons”? Like a
company , or org

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bilbo0s
That's some confidence.

What's the likelihood that China or the US will be around in 999 years?

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dragonwriter
> What's the likelihood that China or the US will be around in 999 years?

What's more relevant is what is the chance that each will either be around
_or_ have a successor in in interest around in 999 years; the likelihood of
the latter are much higher.

(Of course, it's also less confidence than acquiring freehold title—an option
the US had under the original lease—which assumes that the granting authority
or one upholding it's decisions will exist forever. People do that with land
all the time.)

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DonaldFisk
The Lindy Effect predicts that their future life expectancies are proportional
to their current ages. Although the People's Republic of China was founded in
1949, China has been around in one form or another since 1600BC. The USA has
only been around since 1776 (or 1783).

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msaharia
People existed in the American landmass before 1776 too. ;)

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bilbo0s
In fairness, most of those were Native Americans. Most of those nations are
already, effectively, gone.

