Hong Kong, at least, is Chinese and always have been. The British leased the New Territories(90% of Hong Kong) from the Qing Dynasty. Hong Kong island is the only colonial possession, but it's too small to even fit an airport. So the Brits gave it up.

> Hong Kong, at least, is Chinese and always have been

That doesn't mean anything. Does it belong to the Chinese in the Communist party? Or the Chinese that live in Hong Kong?

You’re thinking Democratically. Geopolitically, HK belongs to China, the historically established state of which Beijing is the capital.

So do you think Hong Kong 'belonged to Japan' when that was the realpolitik?

Beijing might control HK now, but by acknowledging the tyrant's claim, we give them power.

Beijing is the capital of the PRC, not 'China'. There are many Chinas, the PRC does not have a monopoly on the name.

Hong Kong belongs to it's people.

That's not true, Kowloon was a colonial possession not under lease.

The Sino-British Joint declaration was in 1984, when we needed the Sino-Soviet split in order to pressure the USSR.

That worked so well in Korea...

Works for the South Koreans.

As it did for the people of Hong Kong. At the time of the handover it represented 20% of China's GDP. Today it's just 2.9%, although that's 5X per capita.

So, increase DoD spending even more (in such a way that cannot be easily reverted) and further antagonize with second most influential country on Earth which is really important to US economically - while confirming that all any small country needs to get free american help is to peddle a small democratic underdog narrative? Just to be clear - in Hong Kong case, I believe this narrative to be true, but it being true is much less important that it being perceived as true and actively promoted in american media.

This should be a global effort funded by democratic countries including the EU, North America, Britain, and maybe even India. The point is to keep the world from fracturing into hands of this sort of pseudo-fascism and capitalist-liberalism. The more I see the sorts of moves China is making, the more I feel that we're heading into a new sort of Cold War and America seems to be sitting back letting it happen rather than actively attempting to contain it... because it seems that they can't actually afford to do so.

That was the intent behind UN and League of Nations before that. Any new similar thing like will end up just like that - a beurocratic monstrosity that lacks any moral authority and is used as a pawn in realpolitik games.