The Economist - USA (2019-11-23)

24 TheEconomistNovember 23rd 2019

1

S

ince themiddle of November, Hong

Kong has been staring into the abyss.

The violence attending its nearly six-

month-old protest movement—both its

participants, approvingly, and China’s cen-

tral government, furiously, brand it a revo-

lution—has stepped up a gear. Police have

increased their use of tear-gas, rubber bul-

lets and water cannon. Protesters who once

carried nothing more offensive than an

umbrella now wield bows and specialise in

petrol bombs. Vigilante violence has flour-

ished. The first deaths—a student who fell

running from the police and a street-clean-

er hit by a brick apparently thrown by a

protester—have been recorded.

On November 17th, in the most dramatic

stand-off yet, the police began moving

against protesters at the Hong Kong Poly-

technic University (PolyU) who were mass-

producing Molotov cocktails. The protes-

ters barricaded themselves in. Riot police

tasked with getting them out threatened to

use lethal force in doing so.

The fears which that provoked have

waned. International calls for the police to

stay their hand may have contributed to a

decision to wait for the protesters to

emerge—as many have, cold, tired, hungry

and frightened. Thanks to mediation by so-

cial workers and a few local politicians, 300

protesters under the age of 18 were allowed

to leave, though their personal details were

carefully taken down. Others have made

dramatic escapes. But as The Economist

went to press 60 or so remained behind the

barricades. Before making his own escape

Mok, a 23-year-old graduate, told our corre-

spondent that, “Even if we are dying on the

campus or in the underground tunnels, we

are not going to surrender.” With the lan-

guage of martyrdom abroad, the risk of a

bloody ending remains.

The violence of the Hong Kong protests,

and of the response to them, is hardly re-

markable by international standards.

Much worse has happened in Baghdad,

Beirut, Santiago and Tehran over the past

months. But by the standards of both Hong

Kong and China’s Communist Party, these

events are shocking. No one would have

predicted in May that a proposed change to

the territory’s extradition laws could lead

to a sustained rebellion lit by burning vehi-

cles. For one thing, China seldom treats re-

bellion with anything less than dire repres-

sion. For another, Hong Kongers tend not

to see themselves as revolutionaries. But

that, it seems, is changing. The protesters

are willing to use violence in the service of

decency and their way of life—to burn uni-

versities in order to save them.

Catching fire

Hong Kong has never been a democracy.

But in the later years of British rule its Leg-

islative Council (Legco) gradually became

more representative of the people. The ter-

ritory’s courts enjoyed genuine indepen-

dence, and its citizens a free press. As well

as boasting one of the world’s most vigor-

ous economies, the territory bore most of

the hallmarks of a free society.

Today, Hong Kong’s local district coun-

cils, for which elections are due to be held

on November 24th, are the only tier of gov-

ernment chosen entirely through univer-

sal suffrage. But when China reclaimed the

territory in 1997 it agreed that its form of

Borrowed time

BEIJING AND HONG KONG

A generation shapes its identity on the anvil of Xi Jinping’s intolerance

Briefing Hong Kong’s turmoil