Hong Kong.........

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I can't see it that way at all.  China (now more than anytime in the last 20 years) needs 'the economic engine that Hong Kong is'.  I don't really see them destroying it out of pride.  Xi is more practical than that.

Boru

Xi is practical, yes. But he's also very invested in staying president for life (he got term limits removed after all). Xi can't afford to appear to "lose" Hong Kong to the West. The Chinese media keep playing up an angle that the protests are a US plot to cause trouble for China. The pretext to crack down has already been laid out. They have also learned no lessons worth learning from Tienanmen other than you can get away with being brutal and that being brutal is better than ceding power to the people.

First of all, there is no chance - none - of losing Hong Kong to the West.  I can't imagine that's even part of Xi's thinking.  Secondly, the idea that there is going to be some sort of Tiananmen-type of crackdown in one of the world's great financial hubs doesn't bear thinking about. Xi isn't going to risk a global economic panic.  Lastly, Xi is smarter than his predecessors.  He'll likely find some sort of middle way (get it?) that quiets the protestors and lets him save face.

Then again, this IS China we're talking about.  Anything could happen.

Boru