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Hong Kong protests have an easy solution: spread the wealth, end social discontent
- The civil unrest has hit the economy, but not yet where it really hurts: in finance and logistics. However, this is a certainty if Hong Kong’s special trade status is lost
- With the wealth gap the source of much youth anger, it’s time the city spent on its future
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Why you can trust SCMP
Conversations with fellow world travellers at the Rugby World Cup usually begin by asking about your hometown. The questions flowed when I mentioned Hong Kong.
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What is happening there? Is it dangerous? How safe are you? When are you leaving? There is palpable disappointment when you tell them that conflicts are intense but localised, often sensationalised, and regular tourists are unlikely to see or sense any trouble.
No one believed me, of course. Two big rugby lads said they had cancelled their 2021 trip to the city. So the police shooting of a violent protester at point-blank range will only serve to heighten the fear of both tourists and businesspeople in coming to Hong Kong. It was a shot not only heard but, thanks to modern video, seen all round the world.
Carrying a revolver is standard police procedure and the rioters must have imagined that they could be used in extremis. The shooting was an instinctive decision by an officer wound up by a febrile 16 weeks of rioting. However, if you attack a police officer on the floor and repeatedly strike his buddy with a bamboo pole, it is a fair engagement.
The hope is that the shooting will shock the rioters into calming down, especially as the attraction of National Day will not be repeated. They have been out of control, overcome by the red mist of the adventure of smashing up public and pro-Beijing property.
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