from what I understand, the riots have increased,,,,,,,i wonder how long it'll be until they crack down

Bet it won't be long as they have no patience for rebellion.

Communism isn’t the same as it used to be. Everything’s getting soft these days.

The only chance for freedom the Hong Kongers have is to manipulate the other world powers enough to support them, so that China fears major economic blowback from cracking down on the protesters. This is why we see Hong Kong protesters carrying American flags and singing the American National Anthem. If I was in the leadership of the protesters, I would have protesters playing for the sympathies of all the other world powers. I would do what ever it takes to get the foreign media coverage of my people supporting their countries. I would have my best and brightest minds flooding social media with images and words designed to garner foreign support.

I think it's very unlikely that any world power will give the protesters any military support.

If I was the Chinese government, I would of come down like the very hammer of God at the start of the protest to prevent it from gathering momentum.

Now that the protest is massively established, the Chinese government has little choice, but to allow the protest to go on and hope the protesters and foreign media lose interest.

If I was in the leadership in China, at this point, I would have people doing their best to keep the protesters from using social media to influence foreign populations. I would have people using social media to show the property damage and the disruption to the lives of the average Hong Kong resident, that the protesters were causing. I would promote or create other news stories to soak up the attention of the other world power's people. I would meet with the other world powers' leadership and do what it takes to gain their support.

China can not afford to let people in their mainland to be encouraged by the protest to start their own.

Keith

Was in Hong Kong twice back when it was a British Free Port. HK (and Kowloon) is a huge international trading center. I'm guessing if the Chinese gov't comes down very hard, that port city would lose a lot of trade business over time. We'll certainly see soon enough.

The crack down will commence right after the Chi-Coms suspend all of Hong Kong's Citizen's rights

and confiscate all of their firearms they use to protect themselves...........Oh Wait.......never mind !!

w