No, Obviously

The continued until the morning of December 28th; when the Chinese government decided to pull a Nazi Germany and invaded just two days before the referendum was scheduled to be held.

The thing is, this wasn't 1938 and Britain immediately declared war. Most nations like the United States stayed out of it but were on the side of Britain since China was the aggressor here.

However, they did get two allies who directly got involved in the fighting

• Vietnam

and

• El Salvador

Vietnam because even though China and them are both 1 party communist states apposed to imperialism, they've been enemies for centuries. And El Salvador cause they wanted to avenge their defeat at the 30 day Battle of Shanghai during the 1950 Sino-Salvadoran War (1950-51) when El Salvador & India went to war with China in a failed attempt to stop it from annexing Tibet.

China also had two allies - Argentina and Ireland - but they didn't really offer much aside from moral support and a few volunteers.

The war was brutal and went on for nearly 6 months. A temporary ceasefire was called in when Deng Xiaoping died February 19, 1997; but when an agreement couldn't be reach the fighting resumed.

The war dragged on for a couple more months, with heavy casualties on both sides until finally on June 23, Jiang Zemin announced that he was ready to discuss terms.

This went on for 9 days until finally on June 30, the war finally came to an end and the referendum was allowed to occur. The referendum passed with 87% voting in favor of staying with Britain.

On July 1st Queen Elizabeth - dripped out in royal dominatrix gear - arrived to engage in some good old fashioned Political Sodomy with the Chinese leaders in front of the citizens of Hong Kong. However it was agreed that the broadcast would not be shown in mainland China in order to save face.

It was agreed that Hong Kong would stay with Britain indefinitely. What followed was Queen Elizabeth knighting the citizens of Hong Kong for their bravery during the war, proceeded by a 3 day city-wide orgy that was truly a site to behold.

In-universe, this conflict is commonly referred to as the Third Opium War, despite the fact that it has nothing to due with the previous two.