It's a complicated topic. When Britain took over Hong Kong, it was a small town with maybe a couple thousand inhabitants. The vast majority of Hong Kong people

It's a complicated topic. When Britain took over Hong Kong, it was a small town with maybe a couple thousand inhabitants. The vast majority of Hong Kong people are immigrants (or their descendants). They knew what they were getting when they voluntarily entered British territory. In a sense this situation fits the Hobbes narrative perfectly -- British subjects in Hong Kong voluntarily chose to live with the government and accept the social contract in order to escape the harshness of the situation in China, which at many times in the past century was "poor, nasty, brutish, and short". And as thus despite the various faults with British rule, in general it did rule with the people's consent as people continued immigrating from mainland China. It doesn't really necessarily speak to good governance on the part of the Brits than the self-selection of pro-British people. Of course the other reasons in this thread are valid as well. It's a complicated topic.