Chinese tanks rolling past Chanel and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel; People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops aiming AK-47s at students sheltering by the glass-and-marble halls of the world’s premier banks.
This could be Hong Kong if, in a repeat of Tiananmen Square in 1989, Beijing’s rulers lose patience with the crowds whose demonstrations against tighter security laws and for universal suffrage have racked the former British colony for almost six months now.
The warm June night 30 years ago when tanks and troops stormed Tiananmen Square to crush six weeks of student demonstrations remains a vivid memory for many in Hong Kong, and Beijing is counting on the fear of just such another crackdown to bring Hong Kong’s people to their senses and take them off
