while talking about protests, some people told me "protests don't work, look what's happened to HK, the city and system is getting destroyed," I said that's EXACTLY what the protests set out to do, this is probably one of the greatest misunderstood parts of the protests

just before covid put the protests on pause, a popular chant was LAAM CHAU (or "if we burn, you burn with us), this scorched earth philosophy was spray painted everywhere, the protesters WANT sanctions, they WANT their special status gone https://twitter.com/xinwenxiaojie/status/1162047384152694787

HK is still where many rich mainland Chinese people park their money, and in spite of what Beijing says, HK is still a important banking and trade port for China, if protesters can't get what they want out of HK, then the mainland certainly won't either

this strategy has been one of the most successful of all in HK, and they've been pushing for it forever, from trolling the mainland and attention grabbing by waving American flags to Joshua Wong speaking in DC to basically lobby for sanctions, it's been going on forever

a Hong Kong stripped of it's special status combined with foreign companies and banks fleeing because of the national security law is a win in the eye of some protesters, many of them have no other way to hurt Beijing, this is the only strategy they have left