“The same way they took North Korea and nearly took South Korea, despite our best efforts. It’s called GROUND FORCES, and they can muster quite a few of them.”
Could have done that any time.
Why didn’t they?
Back then Hong Kong was more valuable to China as a British colony in that they could access the huge, low-cost, Chinese labor pool, but without the tariffs that would be placed on China if they tried to export directly.
...and, of course, once the lease expired in 1997, Hong Kong was going to revert to China, unless China agreed to extend it, which they simply were not going to do. So China patiently waited and took it per the schedule turnover...no need for violence, which would have been highly counterproductive given China’s need (at the time) for access to Western technology.