The Chinese bosses in Beijing have a lousy hand to play as troops fire rubber bullets and tear gas at democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong. The demonstration has been going on all day and although diminished, the demonstrators have not gone home as requested. Many of them are students. And while support for democracy is high in Hong Kong, most established people do not want the stigma of violent protests damaging the business atmosphere or stable lifestyle. For Beijing, the challenge continues to be making sure China does into fly into pieces. It is easy to imagine a genuinely free Hong Kong deciding that it wants to separate and live like the Taiwanese. This weekend the president of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou told Chinese president Xi Jinping to forget about re-unification with the little island democracy. The Taiwanese have what they want already — freedom, prosperity and elections every couple of years. It must sting Xi Jinping to suffer the Taiwan president’s moral superiority. He after all, unlike Xi, is elected by the people.
Presidents of Taiwan and China (left and right) shake hands but the Taiwanese are having nothing to do with China’s one-country, two-political systems scheme to re-unite.
