Casualties in Hong Kong: In about the last 12 hours, one woman lost an eye apparently from a police shot (teargas or rubber bullet). I did not witness that. But in another location, I witnessed police firing teargas grenades into a train station. This man is a casualty from that incident, sustaining serious facial trauma.
I hope he has survived without any brain injury.
This has slipped beyond mere protest. I would not be in Hong Kong if this were mere protest. Remember, I did not “deploy” to places like Iraq, Afghanistan, or Thai fighting until they were beyond mere skirmishes. I don’t go to parking lot fights.
This is very serious in Hong Kong. This is beyond mere protest. This has reached a state of general civil unrest. The government is no longer fully in control. Any day now the police may kill someone and a dozen cameras will catch it and then the police may be in for a fight for their lives.
China has already harassed a US Envoy here. China has threatened reasonable protestors to the point that they might become unreasonable.
This is becoming very dangerous for Hong Kongers and for journalists. Triads (mafia) are openly being used as proxy army and I can assure you that there is a militant side that is hunting for the triads. They were hunting tonight. I know this with certainty.
Prediction: there will be street fighting between triads and protestors. Police will side with triads (or be perceived to do so), and this will erode any illusions of legitimacy.
I will say this clearly with different words:
1) Police are already perceived to be siding with triads.
2) Triads are attacking even innocent civilians and I had several reports tonight they were going after journalists
3) If protestors and journalists both perceive the police are using triads as proxy…that is the sort of stuff that leads to kinetic war
The Chinese Communist Party realizes that courage from Hong Kong and Taiwan pose massive threat to the CCP, as does President Trump who is bleeding the Chinese economy.
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