But this graph goes back to 1950? So like, did that data point exclude it, and then the 2100 one... who knows? It seems to bring up far more questions than answers.

Not sure if this is correct or not, but https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/HKG/hong-kong/population says that the population is only 7 million, despite being so dense but also overall the geographic area is small, and used to be like 2 million in 1950. Which is only 0.007 billion - not really significant.

Taiwan is more so, at 23 million, https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/taiwan-population/.

But the two of them together are only 0.03 billion - and as you mentioned, why include another sovereign nation into China's figures? It demeans Taiwan, appeases a country that may use violence to take it over... well anyway my original point that I need to stick with that if the goal is to avoid politics and convey information most accurately, then this disclaimer still seems to single out China, to the exclusion of every other nation in the world that might make a claim on other areas as well. And despite how the HK situation that was mutually agreed upon for a time and is more significant, the Taiwan situation is what seemed to bring "politics" into this, whereas I mentioned possibilities that would have made it more truly apolitical, and removed the focus from specifically China to highlight how most imperialistic nations have such territories associated with them.