What Hong Kongers did was very Chinese and it didn't need Western liberal brainwashing to help it. It's the Chinese/Asian cultural belief in respecting authority no matter what. I'm okay with respecting authority... if they deserve it. But the Chinese give authority to people for something as simple as because they maybe older. Not all old people are wiser with age.
Why couldn't Hong Kongers have one leader? Their problem was there were too many leaders of too many different factions all looking out for their own interests and not because they followed a common cause. It wasn't because they all saw China as their common enemy. No it was all because each one of them were looking out for themselves on which one was going to be the favorite of the US/West so they could get more than everyone else aka a sycophant. They needed to suck up to the US/West by hating on China because they hated China and that's what wins the hearts of Western minds if you hate what they hate confirming to Westerner they weren't alone with the problem. Like typical Asians they all saw the West as their authority, not because they were the most benevolent and most deserving. It was because they were the leaders of the world holding all the power and money despite how they raped the world to get there. It's typical Asian nationalistic mentality to see them as an authority figure.
Beijing also looks at the US/West as an authority that they need affirmation from. Look at how South Korea, Japan, and whatever other Asian nationalists need the US to like them more than China because to them, it means they're better than China. Some in Beijing want that too. They begged to be a part of the International Space Station because despite building their own space station, they still needed to be recognized up there with established space powers. Does some omnipotent invisible impartial force decide that? No, the US does.
That's how you slay a God. It's not armies battling other armies. Lightning bolts being hurled across the heavens. How you kill a God is to just stop believing in them. Stop believing that their word matters.