I don't think a war they will very quickly lose would preserve their lifestyle. The lifestyle is already gone.

HK depends on the mainland for water and in fact has for decades, even during the era of British rule. That is one reason independence has simply never been an option.

> HK needs to declare independence if they want to preserve their lifestyle.

That would be nice but their government is controlled by lackeys for Beijing; they lack an independent military; and even if they had one, HK is completely militarily indefensible from China.

Taiwan is in much better shape in all of those areas, but still I fear for them. IMHO, they need to be sent far more weapons by the US and they need to pretty much organize their entire military-age population into a well-trained reserve army a-la Israel.