"I do not lead the Hong Kong protests, because no one person leads the protests." — Joshua Wong

Having grown up under Chinese rule, I don't have any memory of colonial Hong Kong or feel any attachment to it.

The police force has repeatedly demonstrated an inability and unwillingness to carry out its fundamental mandate: to serve and protect the people of Hong Kong. It has been reduced to a mere instrument of repression subservient to the political agenda of Beijing's regime in Hong Kong.

Even if the CCP is willing to stick with 'one country, two systems' in principle, no one can say for certain whether Hong Kong's freedoms of speech and the press would survive in reality.

Beijing's imperial reach extends far and wide, from Taiwan and Xinjiang to the South China Sea and beyond.