Kea wrote:
Incredibly, the government compromised. The extradition bill will be withdrawn, not just suspended.
It sounds that someone has had a remarkable attack of good sense...
Kea wrote:
But the protesters are too angry at the police to let it go.
...maybe just a
little too late.
Still, the idea that
someone with actual power is looking quite seriously at de-escalation is a bit hopeful, in a way. Maybe the situation will stop deteriorating. At least for a short while.
Kea wrote:
Meanwhile, the garbage people whom we have no choice but to be ruled by are variously proposing to: hold a series of "town hall meetings" to talk out grievances with "all sectors of society" (they'll be about as representative as a Fox News studio audience), give out a bunch of tax breaks (sure that'll make everyone go home and be quiet), issue off-duty cops with retractable batons to subdue protesters with (what we really need is more sticks), and ban the wearing of masks in public (right, masks are the real problem).
Sounds like what they're really trying to do is spend a month or so doing nothing much and hoping that, in the absence of the original instigating extradition bill or other instigating incidents, people's tempers will gradually cool down.
They might offer something a bit more serious once everyone's calmed down a little, or they might simply wait until said calming has happened and then slowly start increasing their power creep over Hong Kong again, in more subtle and less blatant ways.