Perhaps the answer is not a return to colonialism, but to ask what the colonial governments got right. They certainly got a lot wrong, about which much discussion has already been had. Maybe it’s also worth remembering the positive lessons from that period.

I think it's important to draw a line between positive and negative colonialism. The British were legally given HK for 99 years, built infrastructure there, and turned it into a very wealthy territory that enjoyed many freedoms they would not otherwise have if it were a Chinese territory.

Even today, there is a significant number of people within HK that want to go back to British rule. Why deny what the people want?

Imagine, we must - for we can never know for sure whether such a world would indeed have been worse. They were, after all, very organized. Before the occupation, the main avenue in Copenhagen (a pair of two way streets) was chronically congested. The Germans changed it into a pair of one-way streets, doubling throughput. The change persists to this day. And as for the Holocaust - well, virtually all the Jews in German occupied territories were killed as it was. It's not clear that a German victory, whatever that means, would have resulted in many more deaths. And maybe a unified Europe, under whatever flag, might have resulted in some interesting benefits.

I'm not suggesting it would actually have been a good thing - I find the idea rather sickening. I'm just saying that any historical counterfactual is arguable, no matter how obvious it seems at first. I think it better to point at actual instances of colonialism gone wrong - indeed WW2 still qualifies, and it's not necessary for the Germans to have won to make that argument.

Taiwan and a bit Hong Kong show there is a third way out of communist or colonisation.