Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- August 20, 2019

Police officers fire tear gas at protesters in Sham Shui Po neighborhood of Hong Kong, August 2019 Tyrone Siu/REUTERS

Orville Schell, Foreign Affairs: Tiananmen in Hong Kong

The Alarming Echoes of 1989

At first, when demonstrators began spilling into city streets, citizens were surprised by their audacity and struck by their idealism, openness, and élan as they confronted the might of the Chinese Communist Party. The demonstrators’ demands were limited and answerable, their behavior civil, and their marches orderly. Yet as their numbers grew, they allowed themselves to entertain a heady sense of possibility—a hope that this time they might actually be heard. When they ran into police lines, instead of yielding they defiantly but peacefully kept going. Government officials and party organs denounced them as unpatriotic fomenters of social turmoil, but they turned the insults into fuel for an expanding movement. Before long, they had occupied the heart of the city.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- August 20, 2019

Dodgy data and the health of China’s economy -- Gordon Watts, Asia Times

Hong Kong’s evolving protests: Voices from the front lines -- Yanan Wang, AP

North Korea's Recent Missile and 'Projectile' Tests Need Your Attention -- Dong Geon Lim, National Interest

Security ties at risk in Seoul-Tokyo trade row -- Ahn Jong-hwa Abdiel Lawrence, Asia Times

Vietnam edges towards a succession crisis -- David Hutt, Asia Times

China's South China Sea Militarization Has Peaked -- Steven Stashwick, Foreign Policy

The looming partition of Yemen -- Imad K Harb, Al Jazeera

Nigerian ethnic violence: Conflict amplifies religious divide -- Mohammed Adow, Al Jazeera

Cameroon’s three deepening divides all have one thing in common -- Yuhniwo Ngenge, African Arguments

Italy and Matteo Salvini face uncertainty after PM’s resignation -- Angela Giuffrida, The Guardian

What to expect as Italy’s political crisis unfolds -- Giada Zampano, AP

Putin’s pesky millennials Sociologist Olga Zeveleva explains what makes today's protesters in Moscow something new for Russia -- Meduza

Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of Trump -- Susan B. Glasser, New Yorker

ISIS Is Regaining Strength in Iraq and Syria -- E. Schmitt, A. Rubin & T. Gibbons-Neff, New York Times

Why do terrorists attack places of worship? -- DW