Is 'another Tianamen' coming in Hong Kong?

Editor's note

After nearly two weeks of relative calm in Hong Kong, protests again devolved into scenes of chaos and violence on Sunday. Protesters lobbed bricks and Molotov cocktails at police, and the police responded by using water cannon and firing a live round of ammunition for the first time.

The government warned that protesters were pushing Hong Kong to the “verge of a very dangerous situation”.

As Amanda Tattersall explains, however, this ratcheting up of rhetoric and escalating use of force by police is unlikely to stop the protest movement.

She argues that the government must stop paying lip service to opening a dialogue with the protesters and accept that negotiations are the only way to peacefully resolve the crisis.

Beijing, however, doesn’t appear to be in the mood for compromise, leaving open the possibility of “another Tiananmen” – as remote as that may be.

Justin Bergman

Deputy Editor: Politics + Society

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