alternatehistory.com

I recently got to watching a few videos on the handover of Hong Kong back to the Chinese, and reading a little into the history behind the move. According to the (ever reliable) internet, Thatcher had pushed for HK to become an independent nation with a seat at the UN, and that even as close as around 1990, there were serious plans to resist handover, and introduce an independent, democratic government to the colony.

This isn't a topic I know too much about, but decolonisation and the End of Empire is fascinating, to me. :D To what extent could these plans have panned-out? Could HK become Falklands 2.0 - with Chinese military action against a far-flung British colony? If that were the case, would other nations get involved in any way, or would it just consist of Britain getting the crap kicked out of her for a few weeks? From what I recall, the Chinese military isn't actually as terrifying as pop-culture makes it out to be - even in the 80s and 90s, it was plagued by cronyism, corruption, and obsolete equipment.

As an aside, I was talking to a colleague, whose family hail from HK, and fled after handover. He told me that the people of HK culturally differentiate themselves from mainland China, and that few prefer the current system to pre-independence.

Anyway: Impending-Independence-Hong-Kong-Thread goooooo!
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