As umbrellas follow rain

Nine injured, five in serious condition, after 香港 (Hong Kong) riot police used teargas, rubber bullets, and batons on a crowd of thousands of people, who, defying a ban by the law enforcement authorities, rallied in 元朗市 (Yuen Long Town) on Saturday afternoon to condemn last Sunday’s assault on commuters by triad gang members (mainland China being the suspected mastermind of the coup de théâtre). If so, one of 北京 (Běijīng)’s main goals of Sunday’s underworld “parade of gangsters” was likely to put maximum pressure on 香港 (Hong Kong)’s “autonomous” government in general, and on 香港 (Hong Kong)’s police in particular, so as to suggest that only the most repressive policies are appreciated by the emperor — who notoriously is not either a refined intellectual nor a pluralist policy maker. If nothing else, it should be a good reason for all Hongkongers to avoid any direct violent conflict with their fellow country people, regardless of whether they are state apparatus or civil society. Photo: AFP/Getty Images.