It is said that Deng Xiaoping had said to the then Prime Minister Thatcher that he could send the PLA into Hong Kong and annex it by that same evening. In her biography, the former Prime Minister wrote, ''He said that the Chinese could walk in and take Hong Kong back later today if they wanted to. I retorted that they could indeed do so; I could not stop them. But this would bring about Hong Kong's collapse. The world would then see what followed a change from British to Chinese rule.'' The question is, why were the British so militarily powerless against the Chinese army. Why wasn't the Prime Minister who went to war over the Falklands just years earlier, willing to do the same now? Especially considering how much more monumental Chinese control of Hong Kong would be, and the body blow it would deal to the last remnants of HM Empire?
/u/spiritof454 has previously explained why Hong Kong was ceded to the PRC on schedule
/u/funkyedwardgibbon and /u/LordZarasophos have previously answered Why did Britain give Hong Kong back to China?.
EDIT: Both threads including suggestions for further reading.
Hey there,
Just to let you know, your question is fine, and we're letting it stand. However, you should be aware that questions framed as 'Why didn't X do Y' relatively often don't get an answer that meets our standards (in our experience as moderators). There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it often can be difficult to prove the counterfactual: historians know much more about what happened than what might have happened. Secondly, 'why didn't X do Y' questions are sometimes phrased in an ahistorical way. It's worth remembering that people in the past couldn't see into the future, and they generally didn't have all the information we now have about their situations; things that look obvious now didn't necessarily look that way at the time.
If you end up not getting a response after a day or two, consider asking a new question focusing instead on why what happened did happen (rather than why what didn't happen didn't happen) - this kind of question is more likely to get a response in our experience. Hope this helps!