Editorial — One way or another, Hong Kong protest will end

MONDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — The Hong Kong of today is a contradiction of its former self. Before it was returned to China by the United Kingdom in 1997, it was a lively, free-spirited colony loaded with culture, old buildings and tradition.

However, in the years before China reclaimed it, Hong Kong experienced intense modernization, losing much of its old charm as old buildings were torn down and replaced with skyscrapers, the infamous Kai Tak Airport (with its terrifying landings between peaks and apartment towers) was replaced, and a new tunnel usurped the Star Ferry between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

Hong Kong still has a booming economy and a free spirit, but its democratic freedoms have been gradually eroded China. Elections will no longer be exercises in free choice; instead, candidates will be pre-approved by the state.

So, students have taken to the street in huge gatherings on Hong Kong’s freeways and in its shopping districts, demanding free elections. At times, thousands have gathered, defying authority. With the exception of a few ill-advised police actions and counter-protests, it has been peaceful.

The government has, thus far, avoided another Tienenmen Square massacre of its own people, and appears to be winning the standoff — the protesters are tiring, the crowds thinning as exhaustion forces them to return to their homes.

One way or another, the protest will end. Little will have been gained other than making a statement that the inevitable descent into the maw of dictatorship is not lightly accepted.