It's not that people expected HK to be autonomous permanently, but that it was expected that opening access to the west for the whole of China, and to western e

It's not that people expected HK to be autonomous permanently, but that it was expected that opening access to the west for the whole of China, and to western economies, and especially through Hong Kong, would lead to a rising Chinese middle class who would want more liberal democratic values, and a corresponding decrease in paranoia by the ruling elite. There is historical evidence that suggests that liberal values flourish better with prosperity, just as environmental and anti-pollution awareness increases once people rise above subsistence.