What if Hong Kong was given to the RoC?

Please do not talk about the current events in hk.

I was listening to a geopolitical radio show when the specialist being intervened was asked why would Britain give Hong Kong to the PRC since it was a authoritarian (just coming from Mao totalitarian) state with one party. He replied that by a 1970s viewpoint the world authoritarian states were democratising and China really seemed to be going on that direction, as Portugal had the carnation revolution, the Kmt ended the martial law, the Soviet bloc was beginning to fall and the clique of four lost power in China allowing a relax on their repression.

Let's say the the British is adamant on giving HK to the real China and transfer the overseas territory to the RoC in 1997. What happens next?
 
It would only work if the RoC had an independent nuclear deterrent with which it could secure its new territorial integrity with.
 
PRC invades and seizes HK, ROC can't do anything about it and no one else will either. That means HK is integrated in to mainland China faster and it doesn't have the 50 year democratic grace period.
 
Let's say the the British is adamant on giving HK to the real China and transfer the overseas territory to the RoC in 1997. What happens next?

If Britain was so enamoured with "the real China", they would give Hong Kong to the mainland. The UK doesn't even recognize Taiwan as a country.
 
Considering that the United Kingdom withdrew recognition to the Republic of China... I guess that explains why Britain gave it to the People's Republic.

So, giving it to the RoC may create quite a tense and unnecessary situation for the British government.
 
Please do not talk about the current events in hk.

I was listening to a geopolitical radio show when the specialist being intervened was asked why would Britain give Hong Kong to the PRC since it was a authoritarian (just coming from Mao totalitarian) state with one party. He replied that by a 1970s viewpoint the world authoritarian states were democratising and China really seemed to be going on that direction, as Portugal had the carnation revolution, the Kmt ended the martial law, the Soviet bloc was beginning to fall and the clique of four lost power in China allowing a relax on their repression.

Let's say the the British is adamant on giving HK to the real China and transfer the overseas territory to the RoC in 1997. What happens next?

The UK had recognized the PRC as the government of China way back in January 1950; she was the second non-Communist nation to do so (five days after India). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dates...ons_with_the_People's_Republic_of_China#1950s She did so in part because she realized that she held Hong Kong at the PRC's mercy.
 

Kaze

Banned
At the time of the 1950's the RoC was just as authoritarian as the PRC, but just lesser hard-handed. RoC only became less authoritarian over the 1960's->1990's. The problem is who had the army to take it and keep it - RoC did not have the army to keep it or take it, PRC did as the recognized government.
 
Let's say the the British is adamant on giving HK to the real China and transfer the overseas territory to the RoC in 1997. What happens next?

President Lee Teng-hui and a good portion of Taiwanese get confused wicked fast, not to mention the DPP gets a bit more emboldened about wanting to express more of a Taiwanese identity over a GMD-imposed identity. Nothing against Xianggang, of course - all lovely people and all that. The KMT, of course, would be surprised but would be OK - it would just need some more negotiating time with Beijing over "WTF did those crazy Yingguoren do to us?" and even through the tense SEF-ARATS negotiations something would happen that would be satisfactory for everyone. (It should be mentioned that there used to be a pro-KMT party in HK, the 123 Democratic Alliance, but it didn't gain much traction - which I think says quite a bit, apart from the pretty weird name.)
 
I should add that the only way that I see the scenario in the OP work is if from the beginning in 1949 the ROC contained more than just Taiwan and a couple of offshore islands in Fujian. In this case, the ROC would need to have a majority hold on Guangdong province, at the very least, which would make it possible for the UK to retain ties with the ROC to the degree of granting HK over to it once the ROC becomes democratic. Whether or not the ROC retains Taipei as the capital or relocate it to Guangzhou would be an open question, but it would be a moot point when it comes to Xianggang. In that case, with the ROC holding onto as much of Guangdong as possible (at least) there could be the possibility of crossover between Taiwanese democratization and HK's democratization - which would lead to all sorts of interesting results.
 
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