The Hong Kong protests show quite clearly how Communist China will fail.
First and foremost, the Chinese leadership and the Chinese Communist Party is literally afraid of one thing: their own people. — ssu
Definately, but that's not the point.the Chinese citizenry are far more loyal, trusting, and accepting of the State than are HKers. — StreetlightX
A totalitarian one party cannot be sure of just how loyal and trusting the people are. It inherently cannot know just how much the people truly love it because it is a totalitarian entity, it doesn't accept opposition and there isn't a way to voice out critique any other way than people going to the barricades. — ssu
I'm not sure how this relates to my earlier comment. What do you mean? — Benkei
Perhaps I misunderstood what you were saying. Automatically the people on one side are convinced while those on the other believe it is propaganda. My informants had various political positions, so it seems very likely, but we won't be allowed to know, will we? Don't you, as a person involved with a philosophy site, find that depressing? — iolo
For those who don't know, HK just invoked emergency powers to ban face masks in public places. This will be interesting. I can't imagine that this will have any other effect than to further inflame the protests - masks are readily available and this seems almost deliberately designed to provoke altercations and civil disobedience. They are already in wide circulatuon and are useful to stave off the effects of tear gas and capture by facial recognition. It reads as an attempt to push the protesters off a 'legitimacy cliff', and it makes an already volatile situation potentially even more deadly. — StreetlightX
I don't find it depressing though. It makes it interesting how to come to an accurate assessment about situations. Usually withholding judgment for a month or three is a good rule of thumb for anything political. — Benkei
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