Hong Kong protesters more at risk as crackdown looms

HONG KONG — President Donald Trump has called the pro-democracy protests here “riots,” and China has in effect denounced participants as terrorists.

Yet even when chaos reigns during clashes with the police, protesters clean up litter from the battlefield. Medics stand by to assist those injured. Crowds part like the Red Sea to let ambulances through. Tennis players bring their rackets: When the police fire tear-gas grenades, they lob them back.

Television footage may focus on angry young protesters hurling Molotov cocktails, and they are real; I believe the violence is a mistake that increases the risk of a crackdown. But the vast majority of protesters are nonviolent and simply yearn for this great city to enjoy freedom to match its modernity.

The risks to protesters are increasing, for Hong Kong and China are orchestrating a crackdown — what some democracy figures are calling a “white terror.” The police have arrested more than 900 people so far, and just in the last few days leading figures were arrested while others were attacked by thugs, in one case with a cleaver and baseball bat.

One of the best-known democracy advocates is Denise Ho, a famous Cantonese pop singer.

“It’s never been like this before in Hong Kong,” she told me, noting that China seems to be pressuring companies to fire staff members who support the protests.

“Hong Kong people don’t like to fight on the streets,” she said. “But they’ve pushed us to the edge.”

China’s president, Xi Jinping, is confronted here by a challenge that he can’t easily steamroll, and there’s no obvious exit ramp for either side.

So look out. Xi is intolerant and overconfident, thus one risk is that he will ultimately deploy the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force, to crush the protests. We should be alert not only for troops pouring across the border, but also for thugs with cleavers.

One concern is that Xi may make decisions based on bad information relayed by sycophants. In my conversations here, I sense that pro-China officials actually believe that the protests were orchestrated by American and Taiwan officials, and it’s always dangerous when dictators become persuaded by their own propaganda.

In addition, Chinese news coverage of the protests has resulted in a wave of anti-Hong Kong nationalism on the mainland that may add to the pressure to suppress protesters. In fairness, mainlanders do make one valid point: If protesters in America were throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, the United States might well have seen more than the single warning shot fired by the police so far in Hong Kong.

This great city may be at a turning point, and Trump and other world leaders should make clearer that Xi will pay a severe price if he uses force to try to crush Hong Kong. Granted this must be done delicately, because publicly siding with protesters risks confirming Xi’s narrative that America is secretly steering the movement.

One helpful step would be for Congress to pass the bipartisan Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which would sanction officials who suppress freedoms in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is one of the great cities of the world, and I have been in love with it ever since I lived here in the mid-1980s as a foreign correspondent for The Times. This city is resilient, and no one has ever made money for long betting against Hong Kong. But today it is at risk.