Long Games and Longer

22 years after the British left, the seemingly inevitable absorption of Hong Kong into China has paused temporarily: [bold added]

Hong Kong protests on June 16th (WSJ photo)

Beijing is being challenged not by a great military rival but by hundreds of thousands of students, doctors, factory workers, lawyers and civil servants, armed only with a seasoned defiance and a determination to defend their cherished liberties.

That they are unlikely to succeed in the end is not just the predictable denouement of the 1997 agreement returning Hong Kong to China. The fact is that, as an economic asset and gateway, the city now matters less to Beijing than ever before.

President Xi Jinping is willing to use China's military and economic power over many years to strangle Hong Kong into submission. He's playing the long game like other Chinese leaders of the past.

(Digression: Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) famously said about the importance of the French Revolution, "It is too soon to say", though that now appears to be a mis-translation.)

Only the "soft power" of 21st-century communications to a watching world will give Mr. Xi pause, but can Hong Kong hold out until his regime leaves the scene? It is too soon to say.

On this Sunday Christians can reflect on a much longer narrative. A hymn written in 1974 has become the unofficial anthem of the Hong Kong protests.

on 11 June - a day before the protests turned violent - a group of Christians holding a public prayer meeting through the night started singing Hallelujah to the Lord.

The hymn was picked up by other protesters - soon even non-Christians were singing it.