(throwaway for this comment) I see this question a lot and as someone who has traveled to and sometimes lived in Hong Kong for the past 20 years, the truth is

(throwaway for this comment) I see this question a lot and as someone who has traveled to and sometimes lived in Hong Kong for the past 20 years, the truth is on a day-to-day level, there isn’t really much change. I’m sure if you’re an activist there are huge changes. But as a regular person, life feels the same (even my local and expat friends feel this way). Also one thing to be clear about is Hong Kong never had a democracy. The governor was always appointed by the UK. It was only when the handover was certain, the UK tried to introduce voting. The UK also tried to pressure Portugal to stop giving citizenship to the people of Macau, because the UK didn’t want to do the same for Hongkongers.