Carrie Lam has declared an emergency in Hong Kong, with all that implies. She was doubtless under a great deal of pressure from Beijing.
[Update a while later]
Michael Yon is reporting on the ground.
15 thoughts on “The Crackdown Begins”
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Carrie Lamb is perhaps the worst thing to ever happen to Hong Kong. It was her extradition bill that started the protests and she refused to dismiss it for months as it fueled more and more outrage. She’s said she feels horrible about it, and yet here she goes making things even worse.
Carrie Lam is not under pressure from Beijing, she’s a literal operative of Beijing. This is why China engineered HK’s electoral system the way it has (which, BTW, provoked the protests a few years ago, called the Umbrella movement); so that much of the real power is in the hands of their quislings.
China will do one of two things; the slow kill, or the fast kill. The slow kill is their preferred method; deter the protestors, then slowly round up its supporters over time. They’ll be sent to the “re-education” concentration camps in western China, where people almost never come out, and are never heard from again. Some of the leadership will be murdered outright in HK via selective hits, just like China has been doing to HK book publishers in recent years. (The HK police are in Beijing’s pocket.)
The “fast kill” is simpler; a bloody crackdown like Tienanmen Square. Except, only 10,000 or so were slaughtered in Tienanmen. The death toll in HK would be far, far larger. China would prefer to avoid the fast kill method due to the bad PR it would bring, so they prefer the slow kill. However, if the HK protests don’t die down, or at the first hint that they might spread, China will send in the tanks (already deployed in Kowloon).
It’s worth bearing in mind that the Chinese regime has more blood on its hands than Hitler and the Nazis do, and almost all of that blood is Chinese.
Well, this hasty action should put down the claim that China is playing the “long game”.
First they came for the KMT, the landowners, the Koreans, the Tibetans, the intellectuals, the Vietnamese, the Tienanmen protestors, the people whose organs could be sold for hard currency, the Uighurs…
Michael Yon’s walking tour on Facebook is well worth watching. I found one of his comments particularly chilling. After noting how pro-American Hong Kong is, he said that Americans are safe here from everyone except Mainlander Chinese, and “very left-wing white people. Left-wing white people are as dangerous as it gets.”
We should really pay attention to that sentiment.
For those who, like me, can’t use Facebook, an option is Michael Yon’s website,
https://www.michaelyon-online.com/
I don’t know what’s on the Facebook page, but there’s plenty of content on his web page. The recent vid from Tai Koo metro station really hit home for me; I’ve been up and down those stairs many times, and know the area well. The Hong Kongers are wonderful people in the main, and I’m very worried about them, because I see no way this will end well. I hope I’m wrong.
Thanks much for that link.
This is like watching the movie Cloverfield, except that the monster is a mass of humans arrayed against humanity…
Agreed, except the Cloverfeild monster was much more of a humanitarian than the Chinese dictatorship.
Thanks, No Facebook or Whatsapp for me!
I have a niece living in HK with her husband and two young kids. I’m more than a little worried.
I’m sorry Mike. Any chance you can convince them to get out now?
Probably not, for various reasons, David. Fortunately the family are all Australian citizens which may help when the foreign nationals evacuation/expulsion takes place.
If things go to hell in a handbasket it is a relatively simple matter to cut off water and electricity to HK. I suspect that will be the method by which the Chicom thugs pacify the place. No need for a Tiananmen massacre although if that becomes the chosen method, tank and artillery rounds are pretty indiscriminate.
Especially since retirement, I’ve lost touch with my friends and collegaues in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and can only hope they’ll be all right. I had friends and colleagues in the CPR too, and am wondering what they think of recent events.
I can’t think of anything the U.S could do to China, not involving nuclear weapons, that would do them as much damage as their invading Hong Kong.
A complete economic embargo maybe. It’s quite possible that killing the Hong Kong goose would cripple the chinese economy as foreign money goes elsewhere.