but the police allowed the protests to rage for weeks and did not violently repress them.

The HK cops absolutely were violent, it was just unfathomably better controlled than American cops, because they didn't kill a single person despite the huge scale of the protests and reasonably long time period. Literally the only living being who I have heard about their actions killing was a cat that got caught in teargas (whose owner brought it to the protests like a moron). Meanwhile the HK protestors, in a deliberate and targeted manner, immolated a civilian for aiding the police (I think he opened a gate for them or something), along with abuses that were less serious, like beating up the odd pro-mainland HK civilian or less-targeted, like when they negligently bricked that old man and he died.

Edit: I hope that's not just an incomprehensible pile of anecdotes.