Now the dust has settled in Hong Kong, it’s time for both sides to reflect on what is at stake

Hongkongers, like the British before them, need to acknowledge that their ‘neighbour’ is enormously powerful and often very ruthless

Police outside the legislative council building the day after protesters broke in (AFP/Getty)

The millions of Hong Kong citizens who have been marching and protesting over recent weeks have been mostly characterised by a sort of noisy dignity. They wanted to make sure that the authorities in Beijing and their woman in Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, were under no illusion about their creeping attempts to erode Hong Kong’s freedoms. In particular they wanted Ms Lam to withdraw a proposal that might have meant Hongkongers being extradited to mainland China to face trial in rigged courts.

It worked. The notion was shelved, but that was not enough for some of these passionate refuseniks. They wanted the proposal killed off, and permanently withdrawn.

And so the protest continued, and a minority broke into the building that houses the legislative council, a weak form of parliament, to trash the place.