Chinese Foreign Minister: Hong Kong Facing Worst Crisis Since 1997 Handover, But It Will Overcome Its Problems

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends a press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha (not pictured) and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono (not pictured) after the ninth trilateral foreign ministers' meeting among China, South Korea and Japan at Gubei Town in Beijing, China, 21 August 2019. Wu Hong/Pool via REUTERS

Reuters: Chinese diplomat says Hong Kong facing worst crisis since 1997 handover

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told a Hong Kong business delegation that more support should be given to the city’s government to end violence that has evolved into the biggest crisis it has faced since the return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Hong Kong has been engulfed in angry and sometimes violent protests against the government for three months, sparked by a now-suspended extradition bill and concerns that Beijing was trying to bring the territory under greater mainland control.

Police fired water cannon and tear gas at anti-government demonstrators on Sunday, and Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam later warned that authorities would be forced to stamp down on the escalating violence.

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WNU Editor: Two months before the Tienanmen massacre, I was told by a senior Chinese diplomat that the central government was going to send in the tanks to crush the demonstrators (I was in China at the time). I did not believe him at the time, but seven weeks later the tanks were sent in. Flash forward to today. China's senior diplomats are not talking like that. What they are saying is what the Chinese Foreign Minister is saying. They are voicing support for the Hong Kong government, and they are confident that the Territory will resolve the crisis independently from Beijing. This is a confirmation to me that the Beijing government has not made the decision to send in the military. As long as the Hong Kong government remain loyal, and as long as the police do not desert and let the mob rule the territory, Beijing will stay out. But there is one disturbing similarity between the 1989 protesters in Tienanmen and the protesters in Hong Kong today. In 1989 every young Chinese person I met felt they had nothing to lose by protesting. Today, people in Hong Kong are saying the same thing .... 'Now or never': Hong Kong protesters say they have nothing to lose (Reuters).