doomer

One solution that's been commonly used is democracy.

The problem with Hong Kong voting on it is the same as when Crimeans voted on secession. There's obvious external pressures at play. Hell, there's even internal pressures in all elections that will show that there is no such thing as an ideal democratic process, only real democratic processes that are influenced by internal and external contradictions. I'm not familiar enough with the history of the Hong Kong integration to tell you exactly what the calculus the politicians of China and local rulers made, but it is at least fairly clear from a basic understanding of how the world works that holding a poll in Hong Kong asking them how they feel about independence is like asking a bank teller who's currently being assaulted by 3 separate robbers how they feel about the concept of finance. The forces at play, between the legacy of British imperialism, currently existing American imperialism, and the Chinese threat to the existing mode of social organization in the island, means that (as with all things) a vote would only be a show of class power.