You're missing the point, which is that the people of HK are obviously capable of a higher level of self-government, and the CCP could have chosen to allow that under the "one country, two systems" framework. All of the other members of its "Asian Tiger" cohort (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore) have that.

The CCP was not legally obligated to do so, of course; Drew IS wrong about the illegality of the CCP's behavior here. And as a practical matter, trying to deprive China of the territory of Hong Kong is a fool's errand.

But the talented people of HK who stayed in 1997 in the hopes that the rest of China would meet them closer to halfway do not need to remain. And, now that close to a billion Chinese have been lifted out of grinding poverty by the economic policies of the last 40 years, any economic moral obligation the West had towards the Chinese people has been met; there's no particular reason for the West to further subsidize Chinese development over further development of India, Indonesia, etc.