If it looks like a mandarin duck, it quacks in chinese, and it's going to end as a Peking duck then it's a Chinese duck.
How they think of themselves doesn't change much, Catalans do the same thing but everyone is labelling them as Spanish and no matter how they try to spin it, they are Spanish.

Anyhow, when China will decide that it can't tolerate this anymore it will simply move 5 million Chinese from Shenzhen across the border and suddenly Hong Kong will be full of real Chineses that are obedient to the government while the former will try the hospitality of northern Xinjiang and its reeducation camps.

As long as China is still on its path to a superpower they are fighting a losing battle.