Hong Kong’s passion for liberty

As he prepares to meet world leaders at the G7 summit in Biarritz, Chinese President Xi Jinping must not overlook the significance of the 11th straight weekend of mass demonstrations by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Umbrella activists. Whether there were the 1.7 million people (almost a quarter of its population) claimed by organisers or the 128,000 claimed by police, what is clear is any suggestion the mass agitation against Chinese rule may be losing momentum is way off the mark. Beijing’s repeated warnings about the need to put down “acts of terrorism” and bellicosity in massing armed forces across the border in Shenzhen have had no apparent impact on Hong Kong’s mood of democratic defiance.

Censorship and cynical propaganda ploys have been tried to undermine the protests. But as Sunday’s defiant throngs showed, nothing has worked from Beijing’s perspective. Even the violence at Hong Kong’s airport that brought protesters their first negative publicity last week was absent, with protest leaders shrewdly using tactics to comply with police restrictions, even using a shift system to ensure as many Hong Kongers as possible got a chance to manifest their defiance of Beijing. There remains the so-called “nuclear option” of military intervention, unthinkable after Tiananmen.

If he wants to see stability restored, Mr Xi must accept the manifestations of solid support for democracy and seek meaningful dialogue, directly or indirectly, with the movement’s leaders. He should recognise the need to definitively scrap the extradition law that sparked the initial protests and order the investigation into police brutality that is among the protesters’ basic demands. As the Chinese Communist Party prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary, nothing would highlight its failure more than military action against a movement of young and well-educated people unified in seeking the basic freedoms promised unequivocally under the “one China, two systems” policy.