I don't know where you guys stand on this, but I would mark the HK protests as the beginning of a great US-China conflict.
It's clear to me that the HK riots are not about freedom and democracy, but about forcing the CCP to use heavy handed tactics to force international sanctions on China. The US and co. hopes that this will slow down Chinese economy and destabilize the Chinese leadership and China. America can then initiate military action in the SCS and even on to the mainland to Balkanzie China.
I honestly think leaders in Mainland wouldn't be interested in a major US-China conflict just for the sake of political future of HK. It's highly doubtful anyone in US establishment would want it as well. The right strategy might be quietly reduce the significance of Hong Kong to a level where it's not an issue of current proportions. Let the other cities take it over in all business and financial aspects as much and as soon as possible.
Let's face the realty. HK glory days as business and financial hub are already numbered since the establishment of greater bay area connecting 9 regional cities, ready to take over Hong Kong as business hubs, even the financial component if possible. Shanghai is being groomed to be a future global financial hub. LSE turned down HKSE bid to take over. Instead, LSE would want to go with Shanghai bourse. British are practically saying screw with the judiciary independence of our own common law system, we'll go with money. These protests would only speed up the process of hollowing out of Hong Kong, thereby considerably reducing the degree of Hong Kong's possible domino effect over Mainland. Mainland has offered Mainland born HK permanent residents to relocate back to China with an option of choosing any city they like with full hukou benefits starting Oct 1. Incentives for business communities to relocate to Shenzen or even Zhuhai is quietly ongoing. What is left is the financial community which will sooner or later slowly move out to Singapore or even Shenzen where Ping An and China Merchant already are. Things are not simply working out as it used to be before.
Those kids have hedged with the wrong bet. They should have tried to move out of Hong Kong over to Shenzen, or should have tried to integrate themselves in the larger regional business hubs. Hong Kong as it is has no future for them to grow. These protests wouldn't go anywhere as one of their main demands is off the table, ie one person one vote. That's the red line Hong Kong cannot cross. The rest is just sort it out among yourselves.
Current Hong Kong leadership selection model drawn by Mainland is closely based on DNC and RNC where the committees decide who should be on the ballot box. And it's not one person one vote that counts, it's the electoral college that decides who is the winner. Hillary won something like 3 millions more popular votes and she still lost the election. What a democracy! They should have done their due diligence before burning the subway.