> HK is different in that it's China's primary interface with the Western financial system.
Was.
Part of the reason for protests in HK is that it's not as important as it once was, and young people growing up in HK who don't remember the British (remember, HK never had democracy under the British) are at once lamenting the lack of lucrative jobs like their parents had/have and idealising a past that never existed in order to maintain a self-identity that isn't simply 'Chinese'.
Unfortunately this also won't unfold the way the protesters want. China can turn HK back into a fishing village by simply opening up Shanghai and Shenzhen even further, and HK has no real path towards independence. There's literally no sympathy for them on the mainland, no foreign power will intervene, they have no real power.
