[goblin89]

Relayed where?

The target audience of the protests are (1) local officials, and (2) fellow citizens who do not share the gravity of the situation.

CCP will, of course, know of the protests with no need for any relay.

The “HK students protested against pro-China regulation and quickly succeeded, rejoice!” articles in Western media, though, will also be read by CCP. What would you do if you felt yourself losing your hard-earned strong image in front of the whole world?

Local media attention helps, worldwide—not so much.

[pas]

Just cut your losses, donate HK to itself, like Singapore.

Of course, since Beijing is not really the backing down type, it'll be a little bit of a bloodshed and the unification will be completed ahead of schedule.