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Two months after a summer of rage began on Hong Kong’s streets, pro-democracy protesters and the southern Chinese city’s leaders are digging in for a long war of attrition.
What began as a mass display of focused opposition to a planned extradition bill has, over nine consecutive weekends of increasingly violent clashes with police, evolved into something deeper, wider and far angrier.
The streets of the global financial hub have become frequent battlegrounds, filled with acrid clouds of tear gas and littered with rubber bullet casings.
The protesters have adopted tactics and wider pro-democracy demands that present an unprecedented challenge to the city’s ultimate rulers in Beijing.
Chinese authorities have responded with ever-stronger warnings, yet each time the protesters have simply doubled down.
They have stormed the Hong Kong legislature, laid siege to police stations, disrupted the transport network and staged multiple, simultaneous demonstrations that have stretched the capacity of the local police to its limits.
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See Also:
(1) The Hong Kong Crisis Is Stuck in a Dangerous Holding Pattern