Yet talk about adjusting Hong Kong’s status does warn Beijing against squeezing too hard. Although it is no longer the crucial source of foreign exchange and trade it was in past decades, Hong Kong still serves the mainland’s economy in important ways. Unlike the rest of China, it has a convertible currency, free-trade policies, a generally reliable legal system in commercial matters and one the world’s most active stock exchanges—used often by Chinese companies to raise capital. Much of China’s foreign trade passes through Hong Kong for sound business reasons. It is also a convenient place for wealthy Chinese citizens to invest their fortunes, gained legally or otherwise, in local real estate or globally via Hong Kong financial institutions. (A 2012 Bloomberg investigation concluded that President Xi’s own family had amassed a fortune, much of it invested in or through Hong Kong.)

So the Chinese state and ruling party run economic risks if they intensify the political grip on what Hong Kong residents can do or say, beyond what Washington and others will tolerate. Curbing Hong Kong’s special status in the global economy would not halt mainland growth, but it would cause harm just as China already is experiencing a slowdown that worries officials both there and abroad. But given the Communist Party’s near-paranoid determination these days to crush potential opposition wherever it gets a whiff, there are distinct limits to how much this might restrain Beijing’s future actions.

Robert Keatley is a former editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal and the South China Morning Post, both of Hong Kong.

Image: Reuters