I was going to say the same thing but am glad to see a non-Chinese Hongkonger share the same view. Unfortunately HK has become the new battle ground between China and the US, and as always Taiwan is a card the US love to play against China. Funding and inciting the youngsters in HK to go on the streets has turned out to be a very cost effective warfare for the US in this power struggle. Recovering Taiwan by force will be the last thing I want to see. The Chinese have suffered enough of bullying, invasions, civil wars, famines, and natural disasters in the past century or so, the vast majority of us would just like see this (rare) stability we are enjoying last beyond our generation.
I guess I can count myself as one of those "middle class HKers". No doubt, the new National Security Law is a major setback for One Country Two Systems, but if I were to choose between the new law and the uprising of the separationists (not that I have a choice), I would choose the former every day as it's the better of the two evils. Personally, I firmly believe that HK just can't survive without China. Just to give you an example, two years ago China decided to stop being the dumping ground for low class waste paper (for recycling) from "outside the boarder", and because of some confusions over the definition of the word "border", HK's waste paper was not allowed to ship to China. Seemingly a trivial matter but the city was in chaos within a week, let alone food and water supply. Some people say they miss the economic boom during the late 80's and the 90's when HK was still under the British rule. But what they fail to understand is that the boom had nothing to do with the British but everything to do with the opening up of China - HK just happened to be in the right place at the right time. In 1993, the GDP of HK is 27% of the size of the whole China, as the territory played the vital role of a middleman in China's trade with the rest of the world. Now we are a mere 2.5% of the size of the mainland's economy; even Shenzhen's economy is bigger than ours. China has moved on, but HK has failed to capitalise on China's growth, especially in high-tech. As it is, HK is still valuable to China at the moment as a window for capitalisation, especially with the US tightening the listing of Chinese companies on NYSE, but make no mistake, nothing comes close to the importance of sovereignty, and do not underestimate the Communist government's determination in defending it. This is a fact that the White House know, the people behind the riots know, and the quiet majority of the HKers also know, only those wrecking havoc and throwing petrol bombs don't.
The richest need go nowhere, as long as they continue to show their loyalty to the central government. Only those who have been raging war with the law would love to have a foreign passport now, or a few of those who, like me, are fed up with the endless rioting and vandalism. Just a couple of days ago, a rioter who'd stabbed a policeman with a sharp object on the street on 1st July was captured by the police after boarding a London flight with a one-way ticket. He was carrying an expired BN(O) passport with him. TBH, the vast majority of the rioters were born after 1997 any way and are not eligible for the BN(O) passport. Although on paper three million HKers are qualified, not even 1% will actually move to the UK. It's a well calculated move by BJ because he knows the majority of those qualified are over 40. If they do move to the UK, it will be good news for the property market.