George Will column: Hong Kong is a 'hair's breadth from destruction'

[TomSea]

George Will column: Hong Kong is a 'hair's breadth from destruction'
George Will
HONG KONG

Physically diminutive, intellectually acerbic and with an eye for the ironic, Margaret Ng — lawyer, writer and former legislator — is, at 71, a member of the generation for which this city’s youthful protesters have scant patience. They say the elders have been too patient about Hong Kong’s precarious situation. But, says Ng dryly, the youths frequently welcome assistance from the older generation’s lawyers.

With her closely cropped gray hair and an obvious abundance of wisdom acquired from Hong Kong’s high-stakes controversies, Ng, who plainly states facts as she sees them through her round spectacles, resembles an owl with an attitude. She says Hong Kong’s situation is “desperate”: “Under the veneer of a free city, we are under Beijing’s control.”

Today the city is a “hair’s breadth from destruction.” She is particularly distressed by police violence, which is a departure from the professional policing bequeathed to this city from its past three decades of colonial rule. Recently the police have prevented, sometimes for hours, first-aid providers from attending to those the police have injured. The city government under Beijing’s puppet, Carrie Lam, is increasingly resorting to the policy Ng calls “beat up, lock up and silence.”

More at: https://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/george-will-column-hong-kong-is-a-hair-s-breadth/article_09510fbd-e0fb-5bc1-8485-86bb98600e38.html

[Victoria33]

BKMK

[DB]

Will Hong Kong be crushed while the rest of the world makes a lot of noise and does nothing? Most likely one quiet day all communications will suddenly go dark. And when it resumes Hong Kong as we've known it will be no more. Anyone with the means to get out should while they can. It will be like a repeat of the Berlin wall on the eastern side but instead at the sea.

It may well be the defining event of Trump's watch.