Hong Kong is back in the news.
And the news is not good for mainland communist China.
From Jerome Taylor’s article at Agence France Presse (AFP):
Fights erupted in Hong Kong on Saturday with political rivals trading blows in a mall and Beijing supporters using Chinese flags to assault opponents on a street, deepening the city’s polarisation after months of pro-democracy protests.
The once-stable international hub has been convulsed by weeks of huge, sometimes violent rallies calling for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability.
The movement is the biggest challenge to China’s rule since the city was handed back by Britain in 1997 and shows no sign of ending, with city leaders and Beijing taking a hard line.
Obviously Hong Kong is a huge problem for China’s rulers.
But it is a lot more than that. Despite government control over the media, there is massive contact between Hong Kong and major cities within the mainland. There has to be. And if there is contact, there is cognizance of what is happening on the streets of Hong Kong. Freedom is contagious.
So what happens when the protests break out in Shanghai? Beijing? What do they do then?
It seems evident that China has to end the Hong Kong insurrection. Not calm it down, not try to appease the protesters, but make this go away completely.
I can’t help thinking that another Tiananmen Square is getting closer by the day. And if that is the way things go, God help these protesters.
I fervently hope I am wrong and this is somehow settled peacefully. I just can’t figure out how that can happen.
