The Opium War?
1856?
you must be kidding
this is the 21st Century
I think the problem here is that westerners don't really understand Chinese history.
China had suffered a century of humiliation, from the Opium Wars (The first one was in 1839, my esteemed colleague is thinking of the Second one) until the Chinese Civil War was won by the Communists. For a century, any power that came along had its way with China, and the Chinese resented it and are still angry about it.
So while WE go about and whine about Hong Kong or Taiwan, they see it differently.
Hong Kong was gained by the British after they won a war that began because China was tired of British merchants poisoning their people with Opium. Taiwan was stolen from China by Japan, and then the defeated Nationalists set up shop there under the protection of the west.
We see people resisting a government we consider oppressive. THEY see westerners interfering in their territorial integrity.