Hong Kong residents generally opposed the Chinese proposals. The prospect of any national security law has always been unpopular, but protestors in 2020 said that the new proposals "strikes at the heart of Hong Kong's civic political identity, its success as an international hub. But most of all it strikes at people's sense of belonging".[1] Though opposing the law, some Hong Kongers are expectant of it in hopes that it will cause China's downfall when other nations financially retaliate; though Hong Kong would also be fractured, they believe the only path to freedom is mutually assured destruction, the laam chau [zh; zh-yue] doctrine.[28][2]