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The Brits did not "give" Hong Kong to the Chinese. They had the former Crown Colony on a 99-year lease from the Chinese, and the lease was up. The Brits did not have the forethought to renegotiate the lease with Taiwan before they recognized the ChiComs as the rightful government of the mainland.

"The Brits did not "give" Hong Kong to the Chinese. They had the former Crown Colony on a 99-year lease from the Chinese, and the lease was up."

Actually, from what I recall, the 99-year lease that expired in 1997 was for the "New Territories" on the mainland, not for Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula or several small islands, which China had ceded to the UK in perpetuity. But since the Brits weren't interested in giving back the New Territories and keeping the rest of Hong Kong (it would be like keeping Manhattan and Staten Island but returning the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens to the Commies), they just returned all of Hong Kong.

"The Brits did not have the forethought to renegotiate the lease with Taiwan before they recognized the ChiComs as the rightful government of the mainland."

That's pretty cool, I had never thought of that, although I don't think the Brits would have tempted the Red Chinese in such a way. The Brits probably wouldn't think it was worth it to risk a war by their "insult" of the Red Chinese by signing such a treaty with the Nationalist Government in Taiwan.