"It exploited the colony and local residents of HK as much as China does now."
nope: https://www.economist.com/asia/2019/07/01/hong-kong-proteste...
nope: https://www.economist.com/asia/2019/07/01/hong-kong-proteste...
The vast majority of that time without any real democratic participation of HK citizens as those were considered British subjects and did not have full rights nor citizenship [1].
[0] https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2122508/hong-...