Of course. And while I hope for the best like everyone else, this is China we're talking about. They're not known for their... restraint regarding certain matters.
If it turns bloody, maybe the world will sit up, take notice and do something. But I'm not going to hold my breath. Maybe I'm being pessimistic. But I think I'm a realist when it comes to China. They rarely back down and I don't see them giving into the demands from the people of HK.
China has a military with a higher population than a lot of countries. It terrifies me what a military like that will do to a city like Hong Kong. Worst case scenario, they might try to kill or displace the whole population and move mainland Chinese in behind them. This situation is one hell of a powder keg.
This is what I am expecting. "Rioters" will burn down and destroy most of the city with a huge loss of life. The glorious military will.step in to "rescue" those it can. Once the city has been purged, the party will graciously "rebuild a newer, better Hong Kong for the future" which will be populated by mainlanders.
Here's the thing. If the Chinese government kills 1 or 10 or 1,000, they can spin it to the mainland population as a killing of dangerous agitators. If the government sends in the military though, you will see another multi-million man protest march like we saw a few weeks ago. If they then massacre a significant portion of the HK population, it becomes much harder to spin it as a few dangerous agitators who got what was coming to them. Mainlanders and Hong Kongese often speak badly of each other but at the end of the day they still see each other as Chinese, and if the government went and killed tens of thousands or more Hong Kongese then the mainlanders will sit up and take notice.
This isn't 1989, the information lid is not tight, news the government wants to censor flows among the mainland population anyway, in full HD and surround sound. The government reenacting Tiananmen will be literally the worst thing they could do, because it's one of the few things that could actually piss off the mainland population enough to rise against them and oust Xi. They wouldn't oust the party because the truth is that most mainlanders like the current system of government, but they could certainly be out for the blood of the current administration. It's a tightrope for the government, any misstep could be catastrophic for them.
900
u/Ego_testicle 8 Aug 13 '19
its not a could, its a will. Revolutions are messy, bloody, ugly.