SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Beijing Warns Hong Kong Protesters: Don't 'Play With Fire'
Amid weeks of mass anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong that have frequently turned violent, Beijing on Tuesday issued a stark warning to protesters: "those who play with fire will perish by it."
The remarks, at a news conference in Beijing, were made by Yang Guang, a spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council. He said China has "tremendous power" to put down the protests and warned that anyone who engages in "violence and crimes ... will be held accountable."
Asked if he could rule out the use of military force in Hong Kong, Yang told journalists: "We will not let any acts attacking the principle of 'one country, two systems' go unpunished." "I warn all those criminals: Don't misjudge the situation or take restraint as a sign of weakness," he said.
Yang's comments came a day after Hong Kong's leader, Carrie Lam, vowed to restore order in the city after nine weeks of nearly uninterrupted demonstrations. Speaking on Monday, the embattled Lam said the Chinese territory was "on the verge of a very dangerous situation" — words repeated verbatim by Yang.
See also: Hong Kong Strike Sinks City Into Chaos, and Government Has Little Reply
Hong Kong's Stock Rout Enters 10th Day, Worst Streak Since 1984
Hong Kong Protests Broaden Despite Police Crackdown
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday August 07 2019, @03:23PM
Not so. The Western press doesn't report on it, and the Chinese government certainly doesn't like news of it to get around, but there are many mass protests on the mainland. It's the reason why a few years ago Beijing was forced to undertake its anti-corruption campaign to execute provincial and municipal cadres (the Central-Party connected ones with great guanxi survived, of course, no matter what they had done). The fact is the Chinese polity is riven with fault lines. In the past it has in fact been split many different ways as formal states, but they have never really gone away and new ones have been added in modern times. For example, people make much of the ongoing wounds of the American Civil War, but China has about 15 of those situations extant. They're all separate from the Uighurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, tribes in Yunnan, and Hong Kong you mentioned, which are a given.
In short, people who think China is a united monolith don't know China at all.
Washington DC delenda est.