Also pure speculation - Hong Kong really loses tons of face for China. It's a foreign concession that retains lots of British character, its economy is good, it

Also pure speculation - Hong Kong really loses tons of face for China. It's a foreign concession that retains lots of British character, its economy is good, its media is excellent, and Chinese citizens envy HK standards of living. Tons of mainlanders commute over the border to work, play, and buy baby formula that won't poison their kids. Taiwan also loses face, but much less because it's not British and because it has less quotidian utility to mainlanders. So, it's basically a question of when and how to push HK reunification. Now seems like a pretty good time. If China's economy is already going down the tubes and international sentiment is already turning against PRC over coronavirus, genocide, etc., then the marginal impact of bad things happening in HK is small. It also gives face to PRC government in a time when national unity might be wavering due to declining standards of living.