Once again an article about which one says: "I hope the author is right"! Why is Beijing undermining confidence in Hong Kong? [previously]
In this case it's professor Michael C. Davis, visiting at UHK, who I hope is right about its not being in Beijing's interest to get rough and controlling with Hong Kong.
Though I fear that the calculation may not be so clear to Beijing from Beijing. The recent brouhaha over the pro-independence talk given at the Foreign Correspondents' Club didn't help: it only fuelled Beijing's paranoia about any move to independence for HK, which is the reddest of red flags. Never mind that there's no constituency at all in Hong Kong for the lunacy of independence. If you were in China and called for the independence of Taiwan or Hong Kong you'd find your own independence swiftly curtailed as the prison door shut firmly behind you.
Snip:
Snip:
There is no question, given Hong Kong's location, that Beijing could pretty much do as it pleases in Hong Kong. One doubts anything more than diplomatic protests would stand in the way of a repressive Beijing move to seize absolute direct and unfettered control. Of course, the economic and political fallout of such a move is unfathomable.
