Here is the issue..
forget the technicalities...
the UK obviously took Hong Kong by force....however, the question is, what right do they have to continue enjoying
a free capitalist society, now that mainland China has reappropriated the same?
Also, HK is a showcase for mainland China, per showing that they are very much a part of the times and connected to the outside global power structure......this is also important for investors in recent high flying stocks from China like Alibaba.
It is obviously not a great thing for the mainland to be seen as turning back individual freedoms.....
Appearances are everything.....China is of the global system but yet not quite of it. Their currency still is not freely convertible or traded on world markets. Foreigners are still not allowed to own stock outright in companies.
I am of the opinion that China, as well as Russia, does not want to jump completely into the global economy. One foot in and one foot out.
That being said, if mainland C is seen as turning back freedoms in Taiwan and or HK, being that they are only halfway into the global economy, it can very much cause the outside world, including Asia, to hugely certail FDI and other investments.
It is a tightrope, and China treads it carefully......
The CCP cannot been seen as losing face..It is all about them.......and only them....a relatively small politburo/posse at the top of state run enterprises(SRE's), the Military, and the gov't itself.....
They see freedom and CCP power as a zero-sum. mutually exclusive game..
This is the crux of the entire HK problem...
The protests are getting crazy now.......a crackdown might be coming...this just happpened on Nov. 19(PIC)
Hong Kong protesters smash into government HQ - CNN.com