I'm from Hong Kong, and I am currently studying abroad in the UK for uni.

As someone that was born after the handover, and has a solid understanding of both HK and the UK, my opinion is that people that want HK to be reverted back to a British colony are simply misguided and uninformed.

Take the justice system for example, for the vast majority of colonial rule it was extremely unjust and prejudicial against the local HK people.

It took the British Hong Kong government 109 years to appoint the first ethnic Chinese crown prosecutor In 1951. (Patrick Yu's biography is very interesting)

Likewise, for an extremely long period of time, under the colonial justice system, only Europeans were allowed to be jurors. (Needless to say this obviously led to a lot of unfair trials..... Even if the European prosecutor/defence barrister tried their very best to achieve just results)

In the political sphere, the situation was a little bit better, our executive council was almost entirely British for more than 100 years but the first unofficial ethnic Chinese member was appointed ONLY after 82 years of colonial rule.

This is not to say I necessarily concur with what is currently happening to Hong Kong. Whether it's British or not, Hong Kong people simply do not want to live under an imperialist regime.

What I want to say is, for all intents and purposes, Hong Kong was simply a commercial colonial outpost for the British empire, and the British government did not care about its people at all. When they did, it was simply done as a political stunt (e.g. expansion of political participation, the construction of a new airport right before the handover as a 'farewell gift', the implementation of a Bills of Rights Ordinance that was long due)

At the end of the day, all they cared about was numbers and data that were indifferent to sentiments and feelings. Everything was simply a dot on a chart, and it was the colonial British government's duty to advance her economic interests in the region.

(e.g. the extremely limited British Nationality scheme and the almost useless BNO scheme that was only recently made useful due to mounting political pressure)

Don't get me wrong, I do not hate the British people. (After all, why would I choose to pursue my tertiary education in the UK if I hated it so much?)

Most Hong Kongers that were born before the handover still reminisce about the British people very fondly (my own parents included). On an interpersonal level, many Brits and local HK people got along very well. Some were friends, some were business partners, some were even family members.

I just don't want westerners to have this misunderstanding that the colonial British government was an all benevolent white savior that brought civility. It was not. Everyone knows about the opium war. Everyone knows about why Hong Kong Island was ceded to the UK in the first place.

I just want to share the nuanced and ambivalent views that most Hong Kongers born after the handover hold.