From what I've read on China's mindset, they are impatient to regain middle-kingdom status. In other words, they are the economic, military, and cultural center of the world, and everyone else sends them raw materials. (trying to find the article where I read that - it was from some US diplomat).

A pre-req for that would be to secure complete control over all territorial claims. So if they can speed up the hong kong integration, they would do so.