Or... maybe it looks great... the communist dictators in Beijing have a real problem... a serious case of cognitive dissonance.Sergei82 wrote:It doesn't look good. The leader says unconditional "no" to all protesters' demands. No compromise, nothing. Insulting a good 100 thousand people (add those who didn't go out to protest, but feel the same - it may be even millions) is very explosive thing. Even Putin didn't do it last year in Moscow.
Protesters need to be given something, otherwise it will look like they went out in vain, which is psychologically unbearable to most. Something may be at least promise, but not just "no, and that is all".
On the one hand, they can't show any weakness in their policies, lest they restart the independence movements in many parts of the country, and on the other hand, truly f*cking over Hong Kong with military action or something similar just isn't a viable option.
Beijing is going to have to back down... or become even more of an international pariah... to refuse to compromise will seriously damage the reputation of Hong Kong... and maybe not today and maybe not in a decade, Hong Kong will become just another corrupt Chinese communist city... whilst the real entrepreneurs move elsewhere.