This is the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service.

It's 25 years since the transfer of Hong Kong sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China,

we're looking back at that moment, another key event in Hong Kong's history.

Mike Gallagher spoke to one of the territories most outspoken democracy

campaigners, Emily Lau.

It's the evening of June 30th, 1997, the location Hong Kong, for 150 years,

British sovereign territory, leased from the Chinese.

But tonight, Britain's lease runs out, and democracy activist Emily Lau is uncertain about the future.

The first image that comes up in my mind about the 30th of June was the people.

Some look solemn and have a sense of foreboding because people knew the Chinese government,

the government that had killed its own people with tanks and machine guns would take over Hong Kong.

If you were sitting in front of your television set on that evening,

you would see the celebration, the handover and all that, which the Chinese government wanted

the whole world to see, but I myself and members of my political group, The Frontier,

were demonstrating many of our members were there on Statue Square, which is right next to the

old legislative council building to commemorate the day and voice our desire for democracy.

Under Chinese rule, Hong Kong's legislative council would be dissolved.

So for the democracy camp, the end of foreign control over their territory was a bit of sweet occasion.

The mood on the square was not very, very foul or very nasty.

I remember some of the people were in fact sort of half celebrating because they were happy

to see the back of colonial rule. Some of them were quite jolly. I wasn't that angry either.

Almost all Hong Kong people accept that they are Chinese and that Hong Kong has always been

...