What you can count on to never be reported in the Western press is that hk wasn't a democratic society under nearly all of British colonial rule. It wasn't until right before the handover that the Brits instituted elections to create hostility between hk and China, as they had a habit of doing in their colonies like between sunnis/shiites in the middle east whenever such division benefits them.

Of course their political allies like the us can be counted on to trump up "democracy" as a wedge issue when it clearly never cared so long as hk was ruled by Brits, same as it never cared when toppling democratic leaders it doesn't like.

So please don't pretend to be the good guys given how much it insults the intelligence of anyone who's ever paid attention beyond the propaganda.