Police draw their weapons in Hong Kong
Will months of protests be stopped with force?
Or will there be a peaceful resolution?
Welcome back to China Uncensored;
I’m Chris Chappell.
Hong Kong is on the brink of becoming
the next Tiananmen Square Massacre!
Or else everything is going to be totally fine.
Depends on who you ask.
But it's definitely somewhere on that spectrum,
between huge massacre and nothing at all.
Hong Kong has been embroiled in two months of protests.
Citizens are fighting a last ditch battle against
the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt
to destroy the freedoms in the city.
On August 18, a quarter of the city came out to march.
There have also been a number of smaller protests,
like the 10,000-person protest in Tsuen Wan on Sunday.
That’s the same area where men in white shirts
had attacked protesters two weeks ago.
The protesters on Sunday were largely peaceful,
but towards the end,
a few of them threw bricks and molotov cocktails at the police.
And police responded—
with tear gas...
and water cannons.
And police even drew their service weapons
and pointed them at protesters.
That happened after protesters chased the police
with sticks and one police officer
“fired a warning shot into the air after another officer fell.”
One local resident,
not a protester,
went on his knees in front of the police to ask them not to shoot,
and got kicked in the stomach.
But according to a police spokesperson,
that was just a natural reaction.
But with the protests now continuing into their 12th week,
is there an end in sight?
According to this article,
a prominent pro-Beijing Hong Kong legislator
says he was informed by “a reliable source”
that the Chinese military will send in troops
if protests don’t end by early September.
Which is…next week.
Why the tight early September deadline?
Because October 1 is the 70th anniversary
of the People’s Republic of China—
that is, the day the Chinese Communist Party defeated the KMT
and took over the country.
According to Michael Tien,
“the last thing Beijing wants to see is attention
focusing instead on violent clashes,
or even a peaceful march involving
hundreds of thousands of people here on that day.”
Which makes sense.
It’s hard to throw a party
when the guests keep complaining that they don’t want to be there.
While handcuffed to their chairs.
That’s why Tien predicts that if the protests
are still going on in September,
either Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam
will ask for the People’s Liberation Army to come to Hong Kong,
or China just will just send in the troops of their own accord.
Of course, the logic of massacring innocent protesters in September,
to make the Party look good in October...
that doesn’t exactly hold.
It *would* get the world’s media attention focused on China,
but as my first grade teacher used to say,
“Negative attention is the wrong kind of attention, Chris.”
Obviously Miss Armstrong didn’t know what she was talking about.
Anyway, Michael Tien’s larger point was that the Hong Kong government
needs to “take decisive steps to address the key demands of protesters”
and said that he personally recommends
“the complete withdrawal of the [extradition] bill,
and [setting up] the committee of inquiry”
So Michael Tien is urging Chief Executive Carrie Lam
to meet the protesters’ demands.
And remember, he’s a *pro-Beijing* lawmaker.
In fact, many pro-establishment people have been urging Carrie Lam
to withdraw the extradition bill and set up a police inquiry.
But it seems like there are some things she just can’t do.
So does that mean the troops are going to roll in?
Not necessarily.
There’s another prediction on the other side of the spectrum.
According to the Chinese edition of the Epoch Times,
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has recently ordered
Hong Kong authorities to “Stand Still.”
According to an insider,
“Xi Jinping would not order
‘sending troops’ to Hong Kong.”
Because, as Xi Jinping’s first grade teacher used to say,
“Negative attention is the wrong kind of attention, Jinping.”
Wait, Xi Jinping had Miss Armstrong, too?!
But more importantly, US officials have threatened
to tie US-China trade to a peaceful resolution in Hong Kong.
And while Xi Jinping may not care about human rights,
he does care about the Chinese economy.
Because he needs a strong economy to stay in power.
But it’s important to note that
both the Epoch Times and Michael Tien’s statement
rely on “insiders” and “reliable sources.”
So it’s hard to tell who’s right.
But one thing is clear,
even though the Chinese Communist Party
isn’t sending in the troops yet,
that doesn’t mean they’re not fighting back.
From a propaganda campaign designed to make
the Hong Kong protesters look like violent rioters
To having police infiltrate the protesters
To encouraging violence against the protesters
To forcing companies to condemn the protests
The Chinese regime is trying to turn the rest of Hong Kong society,
and really, the rest of the world,
against the protesters.
But it doesn’t seem to be working.
Hong Kongers have staged a variety of peaceful protests
over the past few days.
From this extremely boring march involving
thousands of accountants...
yes, accountants...
to this also very boring protest by relatives of police officers.
And then there was the actually quite impressive human chain.
See, 30 years ago, two million people joined hands
to form a human chain across the three Baltic states—
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
They were calling for independence from the Soviet Union.
The protest became known as the Baltic Way.
And those were in the days before Purell.
Well, on Friday, the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way,
hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers
joined hands in a similar protest.
They were calling for, you know,
police to not hurt people and stuff.
They spread out all across Hong Kong Island
and parts of Kowloon.
They even climbed up Lion Rock,
where 5 years ago protesters hung this banner
for the Umbrella Movement.
It looked kind of awesome this past Friday night.
And it’s also a pretty bold symbol that the people of Hong Kong
are going to come together no matter what.
And so the Chinese Communist Party might not want to risk
sending in the troops for a massacre—
unless they’re to massacre millions of people.
Oh, and all the journalists.
All these people in yellow vests are journalists.
And they’ll have their cameras rolling the whole time.
That’d be some serious negative attention.
So what do you think?
Leave your comments below.
And now it’s time for the last part of the show,
where I pull a question out of a hat.
It’s a reward for the fans who support China Uncensored
by contributing to us through the crowdfunding website Patreon.
Zhou Rui asks:
“Is the new bridge between mainland China and Hong Kong
the likely path of the upcoming invasion by the PLA?”
Good question.
It sounds like you’re talking about
the new Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge,
which opened 10 months ago.
The bridge was designed for an invasion,
but not the military kind—the economic kind.
The idea was that the more integrated Hong Kong
can be with mainland China’s economy,
the more people there would prosper,
and the more they’d love the Communist Party.
That turned out to...not be the case.
But the bridge itself is too small for a military invasion,
and too easy to block.
Also, the bridge from Zhuhai and Macau
only goes to Lantau Island,
and from there troops would need to cross
two smaller bridges to get to the New Territories,
which is the main land mass of Hong Kong.
The best place to launch a ground invasion from is Shenzhen,
which shares a border more than 12 long long with Hong Kong.
And that’s why the People’s Armed Police
have been using Shenzhen for drills.
You know, general practice drills.
Thanks for your question.
And thank all of you for watching.
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Go to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored to learn more.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time