Ideally Westerners are gaga for the freedom myth where the history of the freedom is that the Roman empire conquered tons of people and then adopted the freedom myths of the people they conquered as something to be lauded, despite the fact that those people were subdued and conquered. Mostly you either belong to one empire or another. It's too bad the British did not try to contest Hong Kong and maybe delay turning it over as long as possible until there was a cold war with China and then this empire could annex it.