Well my fear is that we've seen this before. It's unfortunately not a new tactic from dictatorships where the protests gain momentum and it might appear as though they are going to make some inroads. Then they call in the tanks and quell a generation of activists (to put it mildly). I was among the naive watching the Tiananmen Square protests thinking that "even the army is standing by watching, so this could be a huge change!" My political science professor, who really was a brilliant guy, explained that there was never a chance and that this is an old playbook.
I'm really sad for the people in Hong Kong. I hope it doesn't play out that way, and it's a situation where I would be so glad to be proven wrong!
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