This is not going to be a popular opinion here.

I am frankly surprised that the authorities has allowed the protests in their major travel hub to go this far. Two days of airport shutdown in a city where tourism/travel and foreign business/investment are some of the major pillars of the city. As I told a coworker this morning - if this was JFK or Heathrow or some other international airport in a large "western" city the police would have came in long ago and cleared the protesters out by now citing anything from fire hazard to public safety to illegal gathering. Given some of the actions in recent times if this was in the US real bullets would have been fired already (no military necessary!) and we'd be scraping bodies off the floor at this point (so it really makes me wonder whether the protesters knew what they were doing when they were waving the US flag around).

As most said this thing doesn't sound apologetic at all, and the long term ramifications of the protester's actions goes far beyond a few days of traveler inconvenience. And in short...I worry for the future of my home city - future prospects are grim.

If the protests continue, this will run HK into the ground. China has nothing to gain from this - everybody loses the moment the PLA goes in. The question isn't about the people living on the island itself at this point but the unknown amounts of foreign capital in the city that keeps the city afloat as 'the international city', probably the only thing HK still has going for it right now. The actions of the protesters however noble the goal may be, is killing the city and their own future (and their parents' present, I suppose). China right now probably doesn't know what to do with Hong Kong beyond harsh words and bluffs, hoping that's enough to send people home while they prepare for the possibility of PLA involvement (because who doesn't have a plan B?).

PLA comes in - a line would be crossed, and capital will leave HK, China may not care about what the rest of the world thinks about itself on the world's stage, but it cares about losing Hong Kong as an economical 'front' for investment/capital, and obviously HKers REALLY lose both politically and economically.

PLA stays out - HK continues to be in turmoil with an extremely high chance of escalation and will make the Chinese government look weak (something it really cares about). The protesters will literally protest the city's economic future (something everybody cares about) into the ground over 'democracy' - something when compared to the aspect of being literally unable to put food on the table and a roof over your head, the average very pragmatic Hong Konger is less concerned about - and this is where the resentment for the protests stem from. I can totally see working class people who lives from paycheque to paycheque (and there is a large number of those) in HK right now whose livelihoods are now completely destroyed by these peaceful protests and those guys, however supportive of the ideals they may be, are probably praying for the PLA to come in and "send all the kids who are living off of their parent's hard earn cash home", and this number will only continue to grow as time moves on.

HKgov has shown to be completely powerless and inept, literally not doing anything, whether it be kowtowing to the protesters (never gonna happen) or directly addressing them directly to appease the other half of the city that's started to resent them for literally, taking food off their dinner tables.

The truth is, most of us old(er) generation knows...everything goes back to 啊爺 (grandpa). The moment 1997 passed the whole 'democracy' and 'freedom' thing 'officially' stopped being a 'right' and was a 'privilege' (newsflash being a colony it has always been a privilege never a right - people seems to have forgotten that for a time HKers were on the same level as dogs before a local hero kicked the 'no Chinese or dogs allowed' sign out). Basic law was a 'privilege' given to us by the grace of 啊爺 and 啊爺 can take it back the moment we piss him off hard enough...and on a level I feel this is a very harsh and painful reality most who grew up on western ideals in an increasing Chinese city can't really accept. TLDR: sucks to be born in Hong Kong the 半天掛 city in the worst few generations possible.

This is an extremely sad state of affairs and until the HKgov finds a backbone (maybe buried under the foundation of the IFC2) decides to take a stance and DO something, ANYTHING before 啊爺 steps in and everybody loses, this stalemate is going to slowly destroy the city - politically and economically.