"Peaceful pleas to US turn to mayhem as Hong Kong station trashed and burned"
Their seems to be a extreme disconnect between the young people, Hong Kongs future, and the China backed local government. It seems the extradition bill was just a match which lit the accumulated resentment .
- "Thousands rally in city’s business district to march to American consulate calling for help from US President Donald Trump
- But radical faction breaks away setting fire to an entrance at Central MTR station before spreading chaos across Hong Kong Island and Kowloon"
The election of the hk assembly, with the chinese government having a say in the eligible candidates was in my view a watershed moment.
The hate for the chinese mainland is characterised by the booing of the chinese national anthem at stadiums(even Indians don't do that to pakistani anthem), historically refering to the chinese mainland ppl as locusts, etc.
China is a large country, they should let Hong Kong have its genuine autonomy, let the people their live as they want, restrict entry of Chinese to Hong Kong.
Maybe after a few decades or maybe even a century, the hong kongers due to economic or cultural reasons, will decide to voluntarily have closer relations with the chinese. Not at the moment though.
First of all, that's not the point. Your entire rhetoric is based upon the assumption that Mainland China as a geopolitical entity is actually interested in creating an overarching Chinese identity parallel to the Western concept of the "free and sovereign individual". This assumption is WRONG. Sure China has a long history of a somewhat class-less society, meaning that the mandate-of-heaven system and bureaucratic empire replaced the Warring-State era feudalism for nearly 20 centuries. However, this does NOT mean China do not have a deep history of discrimination.
China only claims to be a cheerleader of an over-arching Chinese identity. In actuality, the PRC only care about their own core population group. This is the actual Chinese tradition. Not every Chinese identity group is treated equally in China. The highest tier identity group of China has always being the "Central Plain Han Chinese" (中原汉人). This has always been true, as long as the central plain (华北平原) remains under Chinese authority. There has always been discrimination against southerners, despite the fact that Yangtze River region is literally the core of Chinese industrial and economic might, as well as the fact that Guangdong and Fujian provinces has been hugely influential in contemporary Chinese history.
This is where you are wrong. Your thought of China has been way too idealized. This is why you thought that PRC gives a damn about what Hong-Kongers want. Actually, the PRC don't give a rat's ass about what will upset the people of Hong Kong. PRC only cares about its own geopolitical interest.