Comment by lostlogin
The government that leased it couldn’t really have less to do with the government that took it over in recent times. Things got considerably worse for Hong Kong, and the citizens didn’t want to join China.
It’s certainly not a given that donating it to China was the right call.
> It’s certainly not a given that donating it to China was the right call.
The right call for who?
For the people there? Not good.
For a contracting British empire facing a clearly growing-in-power China it was a graceful exit without military conflict.