The Hong Kong backlash

China’s Communist authorities are nothing if not predictable. With a high-profile international summit hosted by President Xi Jinping this month behind them, they are ready for authorities in Hong Kong to crack down on a pro-democracy protest movement. On Tuesday and Wednesday, thousands of police wielding batons and pepper gas began clearing one of three sit-in sites, arresting hundreds of people — including two of the movement’s top leaders. The regime calculates that President Obama, who struck deals with Xi on climate change, trade and military exchanges at the summit, won’t react to the crushing of what has been a remarkably determined, two-month-long demonstration in favour of democratic elections by thousands of students and other Hong Kong citizens…

Still, even if its clearing operations go smoothly, China is losing the larger contest over Hong Kong. By moving to stifle the democracy movement without making any concessions, it is ensuring that embitterment with Beijing will become more deeply rooted in the territory, especially among the rising generation that has driven the protests. Political unrest is likely to become a chronic condition in a place that until now had mostly accepted the authority of the Communist regime since 1997. China’s apparent ban on travel to the mainland by participants in the protests will only exacerbate the disaffection. In short, China’s inflexible response to the democracy movement may yield exactly the results it wishes to avoid: an unmanageable political situation in Hong Kong and the spread of the demand for political freedom.

From a leader in ‘The Washington Post’