AMONG the topics I think I know well, I do not count Hong Kong. Although I visit Hong Kong, have friends there, and have researched the place for my writings — for example, its repatriation to China and the Asian Financial Crisis, both in 1997, and the recent Greater Bay Area coordinated development plan — I do not know Hong Kong like I know Beijing. That is why, when the protest movement began there, and then the violence, I was reluctant, at least initially, to accept interview requests from the international media.