THE change in tone in Hong Kong newspapers that are sympathetic to the Communist Party says it all. Once hysterical about the territory’s pro-democracy protests, their commentators are now smugly dismissive and condescending. The “Occupy” demonstrations had begun “with madness”, declared an editorial in Ta Kung Pao, one of Hong Kong’s staunchest pro-party rags, on November 19th, and were “ending in failure”. A few days earlier Global Times, a nationalist newspaper in Beijing, had crowed that the protesters had been “forgotten” by the world.
Nearly two months after the use of tear gas by police drew more than 100,000 demonstrators onto the streets and prompted protesters to set up barricaded encampments on several major roads, the authorities are beginning once again to step up pressure, this time with little resistance.
The protesters, now numbering only a few hundred, are demoralised. On November 18th police, enforcing a court order, quietly cleared some of the barricades from in front of an office building near the government’s headquarters. They have orders to do the same at other protest sites. It looks like the beginning of the end for the unexpectedly protracted standoff. Protest leaders watched the police without interfering. They still have the support of younger Hong Kong...Continue reading
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