It has become impossible for American elites to ignore the Hong Kong protests. On Tuesday prominent Hong Kong activists appeared on Capitol Hill, urging a congressional commission co-chaired by Senator Marco Rubio to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act (HKHRDA) — a bipartisan bill that would introduce new forms of US oversight over Hong Kong’s semiautonomous status. The goal, supporters say, is to shore up Hong Kong democracy against the authoritarian encroachment of China.

Western pundits have dutifully echoed this argument, claiming Hong Kong is the “new Berlin,” the front lines of a renewed Cold War.

This is an appealing line for moderate protesters and politicians alike, casting the complicated conflict in a simple binary where the United States represents freedom and China autocracy. Yet in reality, Hong Kong is caught within a historical and geopolitical trap: its value as a conduit for capital between China and the West is the very reason its self-determination has been denied. China’s authoritarian state capitalism and the West’s neoliberalism are both threats to Hong Kong’s already-weak democracy.