> Who's behind this, in China?
Xi and his ally within the CCP. Even within CCP there are power split and Xi needs to create a scene to concentrate the power to himself.
> Is the person ordering it aware of that
Surely they do, but to CCP, this is the only way to make them feel confident enough, by squashing all dissidents.
> Is it Carrie Lam? Their chief of police?...
Personally, I guess the order from CCP to HK govt is, "get rid of all dissident, use any means that you think that will work."
> I would think that Mr Xiping would have better things to do running a country of a billion people than decide to provoke the HK populace on a random day in September.
CCP have crack down so many things these day, no? Things happen in parallel.[1][2][3][4]
> Is the person ordering it aware of that Surely they do, but to CCP, this is the only way to make them feel confident enough, by squashing all dissidents.
> Is it Carrie Lam? Their chief of police?... Personally, I guess the order from CCP to HK govt is, "get rid of all dissident, use any means that you think that will work."
> I would think that Mr Xiping would have better things to do running a country of a billion people than decide to provoke the HK populace on a random day in September.
CCP have crack down so many things these day, no? Things happen in parallel.[1][2][3][4]
1: https://thediplomat.com/2021/09/the-real-cause-of-chinas-ali... 2: https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/tenc... 3: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/china-xi-jinping-... 4: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58459318