With open warfare, the historical playbook for putting down this sort of thing is clear. Roll in the tanks, and infantry from Mongolia or whatever. Sometimes the revolt get put down immediately, sometimes you end up with guerrilla warfare.
What a contorted argument. I assume that the British empire wasn’t a modern state, and that history is less than one century long (and full of holes).
Using your example of the British Empire, India didn't win independence through combat, civil disobedience made it politically untenable for the British to continue. That had far-ranging effects on what was left of the colonies.
One of the arguments core to an advocate of the 2nd amendment with respect to this issue is that a citizen militia, equipped with small arms, would be capable of deterring a government from taking some action. It's an increasingly absurd position.
No. Ordinary civil disobedience will do utterly nothing. You need a certain amount of violence - just look at France, only after the riots were utterly massive the government caved. The alternative is a massive general strike, which has fallen out of favor in modern times as many jobs are easily replaceable and people are afraid of getting fired.
Meanwhile, the Chinese PLA certainly doesn't suffer from any manpower shortages to contain the situation when they eventually want to.
You don't need guns. Making car bombs and IEDs requires only determination and some practice. PLA as any modern army is poorly equiped to combat urban guerilla. Such a dense maze like Hong-Kong had never been experienced by any army.
Loss of face for China would be collosal if any sort of prolonged and effective resistance happend after intervention.
But I hope it won't be necessary.
I doubt China ultimately cares about loss of face.
In a population of 8 milion you will find more then enough smart, determined, intelligent people who can learn quickly enough and innovate.
The only thing that China is afraid of is the loss of face :-)
China's style in Xinjiang is more bottom up and comprehensive with internment camps and mass surveillance.
You could say our style reflects our individualistic understanding of society while China's style represents a more Marxist collectivist view.