It was sad to see them buckle to the commies in the years after the great protests for freedom.
They didn't "buckle" what happened is that while the USA was all totally caught up in Race Riot hysteria, Covid Insanity and Orange Man Bad being the only thing on the news, the Chinese government sent in a large wave of "security forces" and changed Hong Kong from a light touch communist guided area to a full on Police State just as repressive as the mainland.
Then they used the "Covid Lockdown" thing that all the west was bowing down without question to, as their excuse to go full on repression and eliminating any political activists / protest leaders and ending any public dissent.
They had been letting Hong Kong have the apperance of being a bit more loose and free as a propaganda stunt to say it won't be so bad when we take over Taiwan, and also so they could say "It's not China, it's Hong Kong" to get around certain trade restrictions and location restrictions and such.
But when the locals got a bit too out of hand with actually thinking they could have some real freedom to do what they wanted, not what the CCP wanted and actually have free and fair elections, not just pick from a list of CCP approved candidates, the CCP decided it would need to go heavy handed.
But Trump was in power and China was afraid that he would go even more hard ass on his trade war and hesitant that he might actually you know do something on the military or blockade side so they had to wait until they were sure everybody was looking the other way and our military and political traitors let them know the coast was clear, then they launched the crackdown.
During that brief waiting period, the protesters got a bit bold thinking they had a chance and the USA would support them... silly rabbits, the USA doesn't support freedom if you don't have something we want like Oil. The end result was predictable by pretty much everybody except a few starry eyed idealists.
I guess they forgot all about that Tienanmen thing...