You probably haven’t seen too much about the riots in Hong Kong because the Chinese are trying to keep a lid on things and the American media is covering a far more important story, the suicide of the predator Epstein.
China is on the verge of a bloody suppression of dissent in Hong Kong of the likes of Tienanmen Square. Remember this?
Tienanmen Square was filled with protesters on 4 April 1989. [We have seen this movie before.]
That protest led to this — tanks in the square as part of a brutal suppression of dissent.
This is Hong Kong a month ago.
Hong Kong, Big Red Car?
Hong Kong, a British Crown colony since 1842 at the end of the First Opium War, was a series of farming and fishing villages that grew into one of the world’s most important ports, an import-export gateway for China, and a substantial finance center. It has one of the highest per capita income levels in the world and boasts the highest concentration of ultra high net worth individuals of any city.
In 1997, Hong Kong — which had been controlled by the Brits through a series of long term leases — reverted to Chinese control as a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese sold the deal to the Brits and the world as “one China, two systems.”
China wanted to have this independent (well, not so independent) gateway to the world and was prepared to allow it some freedoms in return.
The Chinese appointed the leader of the Special Administrative Region and allowed some faux democracy.
Riots, why, Big Red Car?
Hong Kong has been restive since 1997. The HK folk did not embrace jettisoning their British lifestyle and going full tilt Chinese in one day. That has manifested itself in continued bristling under Chinese control, the Chinese yoke. The Chinese have slowly, but surely, been exerting more control over its wayward Special Administrative Region.
Opposing forces clashed in the streets over a new extradition law.
These riots were spawned when the Beijing Chinese overlords decided they should be able to extradite a Hong Kong citizen to the mainland to stand trial for transgressions alleged by the Chinese overlords.
Hong Kong folk were quite happy with their own police force, courts, judges, and their own administration of justice. They saw this move by the Beijing overlords as a massive erosion of their judicial independence made worse by what is perceived as a hopelessly corrupt, politically controlled, fatally flawed mainland Chinese judicial system.
Fair minded observers agree that Chinese law enforcement routinely uses torture, arbitrary detentions, coerced confessions, and the inability to access lawyers in a contrived and corrupt court system controlled from Beijing. Who wouldn’t protest being drawn into that? Particularly when the current state in Hong Kong is modeled on the British system of courts and law enforcement.
This was the Fort Sumter of the riots, the trigger that started it all.
Five years ago, the Hong Kong citizens engaged in massive sit-in protests over electoral reforms — again, Beijing exerting more control over their rebellious colony.
Fast forward — today there are massive protests, massive violence, the airport has been swarmed over and closed, all flights have been cancelled, and the police violence has become a core element of the continuing riots.
The ugliness of dealing with the Chinese
The Beijing overlords are a brutal bunch of Communists who regularly use torture, uncharged imprisonment, re-education camps, and murder as elements of routine law enforcement.
They are also equally brutal in punishing those who support any kind of dissent including businesses.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China has forced Cathay Pacific Airlines of Hong Kong to discipline any employees participating in the riots by disallowing anyone to fly into mainland China who is on “the list” of protesters.
At first, Cathay Pacific blew the CAAC off, but then they realized that half of their cash flow ($3.3B out of $6.8B) comes from servicing China, so they caved.
Not content with just business coercion, the Beijing bunch employed the Chinese mafia — the current rebooted version of the Chinese Triads — to unleash their gang members on the protesters to punish them for having the temerity to assemble in the streets. Chinese gangsters flooded the streets and beat the snot out of the protesters as the Hong Kong police looked on clueless.
The Chinese overlords have given a clear indication of their intentions by assembling 12,000 riot police in Shenzhen (just north of Hong Kong on the mainland) and conducting anti-riot drills. China is already a bit tense as it draws nigh to the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China by Mao and his long marchers.
The police have used cudgels, sticks, rubber bullets, propelled bean bags, tear gas, and water cannon to assault the protesters. The police love to administer a journeyman like caning.
The police, in addition to using Triad thugs, have been infiltrating the protesters and luring them into getting a beating. The Chinese overlords readily admit this to be true.
In addition to the obvious marshaling of riot police, there are armored columns headed to the northern border of Hong Kong. The first ones have been armored personnel carriers intended to move troops.
Bottom line it, Big Red Car
Hold your breath because you are about to see a “do-over” of Tienanmen Square. The Chinese are not going to brook any dissent on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The streets will flow red with the blood of the protesters because that is how China deals with dissent. Boom!
This is going to get very messy. Wake up, American media.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Be well, Tuesday.