Nothing is off the table. Material interests, including money, are all expendable. They are tools for serving the country and to unite the population is one of the greatest services there can be. Sacrifice and use money to achieve your goals and you are the master of wealth; sacrifice your interests and goals to protect wealth and you are its slave. The only question should be whether or not military action is the best way to achieve that goal.
You may be noble enough to make huge material sacrifices for your country and a political system you believe in. That's you being a good citizen. But what about the corrupt officials and cronies running the CCP system? What about the corrupt officials who take the people's money into their own pockets and then store them in places like HK's banks, US, UK, Australia, while their sons and daughter live like kings and queens abroad? Why are Chinese citizens remain loyal to officials who are clearly kleptocrats and have no interests in caring about the wellbeing of ordinary PRC citizens? So my question is simple, before blaming HK protesters for violence and betray, are Xi and his lieutenants good citizens themselves, or do they also steal from the people and subsequently buy huge mansions overseas for their kids?
First, the ethnic conflicts you mentioned do exist, and they are probably more serious than you and I think. That's why see problems in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong independence movements. Even without U.S. and Soviet incitements, these movements would still exist. Secondly, while China is indeed ruled by the CCP, are CCP rules benevolent and treating every citizens (including CCP officials themselves) equally before the law?
Oh, shit. Everything's clear now. I always thought you had an odd stance but seemed to be on China's side. It seems you were poisoned by the "Love the Chinese people but not its government" crap that the Western media makes up to undermine all Chinese people so let me be clear about this:
I understand your point that winning to geopolitical competition should be the priority for Chinese citizens (and HKers, who are also ethnic Chinese and protected by Beijing). However, do most CCP officials REALLY care about winning for China, or do they see everything as a game to enhance their own family wealth? Think about Ling Jihua, who defected to the CIA for losing a political struggle in China. He now happily lives in the U.S. with his cronies. So many more CCP officials have their mansions overseas and married their sons and daughters to well-connected foreigners. They are doing so just in case if they lose their power and privileges as a result of power struggles, their children and wives could still hold onto their illicit wealth overseas (and most importantly, switch side to support anti-China forces for survival). In fact, ever since Zhou Yongkang was arrested, his daughter in law all of a sudden started talking about freedom and waving American flag (she became a naturalized U.S. citizen when Zhou was in power). In other words, while CCP officials prevent Chinese citizens (like you) from speaking their minds about various way to improve the country's governance and legal system, the same officials are taking advantage of the West's open economy and political system not to enhance China's power, but the material interests of their own family and clan members. They just happen to use the PRC Party-State system as a platform to cover up their dirty works and real intentions. I am NOT calling for overthrowing the CCP (because I am afraid of chaos, too), but at least citizens (like you) should have a voice in how your country is run and be able to hold corrupt cronies accountable without retributions. In other words, if your leaders don't really care about winning for you and could be a potential traitor (on part with HK pro-independence individuals, but a lot wealthier), why should you bother to obey them? As Trump accuses Washington of being dominated by a corrupt, unpatriotic internationalist elite, I think the same accusation should actually be applied to the CCP.
This is true, and the Anglo-Saxon would indeed continue to squeeze their perceived opponents no matter what. However, the problem with the PRC is that it has an elites that is rotting the country from within, a threat that could hurt the ordinary Chinese people more than Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxon world order was merciless toward the Russian people, but so were President Yeltsin and his cronies, who stole Russian people's money and bought almost every property around Hyde Part in London.