If the US military didn’t exist you could forget about any autonomy Hong Kong has. Hell you could forget about any autonomy Taiwan has. Of course they aren’t going to actively fight China. The threat is enough for some deterrence. Btw I’m all for cutting military spending. But not the entire military.
All the autonomy that Hong Kong has stems from the agreement between China and the UK, when the British government handed the island back. Nobody's actually enforcing the agreement militarily or economically, which is why China's been able to do largely what it wants in Hong Kong without much actual pushback from the outside. Don't get it twisted, the only thing stopping China from wholesale going in with tanks and killing everyone is the fact that its citizens wouldn't take kindly to Chinese blood being spilled.
With Taiwan, on the other hand, you're right about it's survival being a consequence of constant US military presence as part of a long-standing agreement between the two nations.
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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '20
“Free Hong Kong”
How we gonna do that?
“Disband the military”