The protest against the Chinese communist government in Hong Kong continues to grow larger with every passing week.
So far, the protests have been peaceful. The protesters are quite aware that the slightest hint of violence will give the Chinese government looking for the crackdown on those protests. So far, that hasn’t happened.
Picture of the sheer size of these protests. I am seeing reports that last weekend’s protests were attended by one point seven million people. That’s like the entire borough of Manhattan standing up to be counted. (Ironically the residents of Manhattan would be more likely protesting in favor of socialism that Hong Kong’s people have rejected.)
Reports I’m hearing suggest that the people taking part in these protests, know very well what they’re up against. They know that got a snowball’s chance in the Sahara to actually cause positive change toward their desired democracy. Yet, they keep it up simply because they don’t have anything else to go with. They know their efforts and quite likely they themselves doomed, and they keep fighting anyway. It brings to mind the old saying about how you can vote yourself into socialism, but you’re going to have to fight your way out of it. The trouble of course is that with weapons being banned in Hong Kong as in the case of the rest of China itself, they no longer have anything to fight with but their voices… and unfortunately that has proven totally ineffective.
For its part, China has a choice before it and I sense a hesitation in choosing amongst their two choices. They can either go the path of Gorbachov or the more likley path of Tiananmen square.
II am not at all convinced this is going to end well for the people of Hong Kong, particularly with China seeking to flex its military muscle in the region and around the world for that matter. Then again, I made that prediction back in 1984. I viewed it as merely a matter of time before any semblance of individual freedom was gone for the people of Hong Kong. The Chinese have been playing the long game on this, and that’s something that we in the west have never learned how to play.