It's only false equivalence to those zero familiarly of HKer/Mainlander dynamic. Which is the majority of western readers, hence their extreme susceptibility to biased reporting.
>If you’re going to end with this sort of false equivalence, it kind of colors the rest of your argument and makes me wonder if you are being disingenuous here.
The closest analogy to HK protestors are alt-right, they match all the hallmarks: disenfranchised, social media savvy, economically anxious youth who see their culture being displaced and their privileged being eroded by immigrant mainlanders. Rich ones come in to buy all the property, poor ones use up all the social services. These are common complaints to the mainland locust narrative - when the mainland sends their people, they're not sending their best.
[1] https://www.scmp.com/article/991355/anger-mainland-visitors-...
A row between Hongkongers and mainlanders is reaching boiling point after internet users raised more than HK$100,000 in less than a week to finance a full-page 'anti-locust' advertisement in a Chinese-language newspaper in the city.
...
Mainlanders have already crossed our bottom line,' said Yung Jhon, who refused to disclose his real name. 'Why are mainland mothers flooding in to take up resources in public hospitals, getting our benefits and social welfare? Why do mainlanders ... refuse to follow our rules and order? We can't accept that.
Sounds familiar?
30 years ago, common HKer could get a low-skill industry or service job and make a comfortable living based off mainland exploitation. Then China's manufacturing growth made HK Detroit. After handover, 1 million mainland immigrants entered HK on one-way permits under family reunification plan in the last 10 years. That's 15% of the city. This culture clash is the same script causing right wing nationalism everywhere in western liberal countries. But because it's HK, and the sufferage angle plays well to western MSM, people close their eyes, pretend HK is some woke utopia, and that all those Pepes memes are innocent, because English proficient HKers who use western internet are somehow just like us in the west but also that naive.
>I further note that you make a lot of assertions with no facts to substantiate them, and refer to news reports on Hong Kong as propaganda, so perhaps I don’t need to wonder anymore.
Propaganda via omission. How long did it take for western news media to finally acknowledge the frequent violence happening on the ground? The racially motivated on mainland citizens and mainland connected businesses. The doxxing of police families. Why don't you do some research yourself. The fact that people here, beneficiaries of a free 5th estate somehow reliably have their opinions shaped to reflect US foreign policy positions is... interesting. It's Manufacturing Consent, Iraq WMDs all over again.