Hong Kong's "White" Christmas

Tear gas was fired at protesters in Tsim Sha Tsui on Christmas Eve

 

What is the Hong Kong government's end game with the protests that are into its seventh month?

The day before Christmas police clashed with protesters who took their demonstrations to shopping malls around town.

Protesters feeling from the tear gas on Nathan Road

Protesters dressed in black and wearing masks didn't want to be arrested for illegal assembly so they went "shopping" to continue to push for their five demands to be met, including the withdrawal of the extradition bill.

Things got more tense when undercover police officers confronted protesters and started beating up people with extendable batons. Others were pepper sprayed and riot police fired tear gas in Tsim Sha Tsui prompting someone on social media to sarcastically remark it was a "white Christmas" for Hong Kong...

Apparently the protests were so unruly that the MTR stations in Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok were closed down in the evening.

A day earlier Cardinal John Tong Hon issued a video message, urging for a truce during the Christmas holiday and to use the time off to cool down and reflect.

A protester being beaten by undercover police in a mall

Tong also called on the Hong Kong government to listen to the people and set up an independent inquiry into police handling of the protests, saying this would "help to re-establish mutual trust between the government and the people and pave the way for a dialogue of reconciliation".

As a Catholic herself, it's strange that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is not heeding these words of wisdom that he has repeated a few times over the past half year.

Similarly the Archbishop of Hong Kong's Anglican Church, Most Reverend Paul Kwong urged the government and protesters to use the holiday as an opportunity to "start a dialogue with courage, sincerity and humility, and to admit their own inadequacies and shortcomings".

"The government should not limit themselves to rigid thinking when they respond to voices from society, but should instead take practical measures or actions that are relevant to the needs of the citizens," Kwong said.

Cardinal John Tong called for peace during Christmas break

So how what is the end game? Lam keeps saying the violence has to end, but the police, more specifically the riot police, ratchet up tensions and violence and then people come out again the protest the violence... it's a never ending cycle.

Meanwhile the government does nothing except repeat its condemnation of the violence.

How is this productive at all?

This does not solve anything, making everyone more frustrated and stressed, angry and sad.

Perhaps the government is living in a parallel universe, unable to fully comprehend let alone empathize with what is going on in the streets of Hong Kong. Maybe it is still in denial about the November 24 district council elections where 17 out of the 18 districts turned yellow.

Riot police in Harbour City shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui

The people have spoken! The government should be responding to this quasi referendum of what people want.

Instead Hong Kong supposed leadership is hiding behind the police in the hopes that tear gassing people will make the problem go away...