I don't have a hard time in accepting this. Given the reports of protests in Hong Kong about the Chinese government attempts at taking them over, I can believe it. I also thinnk it is a foolish endeavor by the Chinese govt to do so, since Hong Cong has been a direct liason to connect Chinese manufacturing to the rest of the world.

But, in the last couple of decades, China has been able to form more direct trade interactions with the rest of the world. In their own cities, such as Wuhan. So maybe, because of this, they might be thinking that Hong Cong isn't so important anymore. But it is. 

Especially since the virus broke out. Another subject entirely, that I'm not going to discuss here. But it's already hurting them. Call it a backlash, karma, whatever. There are consequences.