Well sure that's a start. But is 14% abnormal?

I legit don't know. I tried to find out just now and ended up on this wikipedia article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentag...

This data set has a lot of N/A in it. I end up relying on the CIA estimate for basically all of them because no other column has data. Just for the sake of fair (albeit unscientific comparison) I'm picking out the stats from random first-world countries as I scroll through the list. I am using the second list titled "Population living below national poverty line"

    Canada: 9.4%  
    Denmark: 13.4%  
    France: 14.2%  
    Germany: 16.7% 
    US: 12.3% 
    Japan: 16.1%  
    Hong Kong: 19.9% 

So the CIA estimate is higher than the SCMP article. Maybe they are also overestimating the other countries, or maybe its just statistical variance.

Taking the data at face value, HK does seem to be above average in poverty, but likely within a standard deviation. HK is also unique in this list because its a de facto city-state. Perhaps when we break those other countries down per city we get similar results?

I'm not satisfied with the poverty line explanation. The protestors don't look to be poor people and we don't see such a degree of protest in other places with similar amounts of poverty.

The narrative that Hong Kong protests are primarily supported by poorer folks whom the economy failed in recent past goes counter to some recent reports—various Hong Kong accounting firms being requested to fire employees who express sympathy with protests, resignation of the CEO of Cathay Pacific (alleged to be a flashy gesture with which he admitted his support)—and to my anecdotal experience: among local acquaintances, those who don’t openly support the protests are either relatively not well-off or they agree with protesters on the goals but, like me, disagree on modes of action.