The Hong Kong protests are strengthening China’s Communist Party

While the protesters have legitimate grievances, 3 months of often violent demonstrations are weakening Hong Kong and the entire Chinese freedom movement

For twelve weeks the streets of Hong Kong have been clogged with tens of thousands of people protesting the Chinese Communist Party and demanding democratic reforms to their local government. The protests have regularly swelled into the hundreds of thousands for weeks at a time, and even into the millions for whole weekends, with relatively little response from the authorities. The Chinese government calls them riots and has referred to the protesters as domestic terrorists but, for a police force and military possibly best known for violently handling the Tiananmen Square protests 30 years ago, the CCP has been noticeably cautious in Hong Kong. The incidents of verified police violence are comparatively rare in a sustained mass demonstration of hundreds of thousands. President Xi Jinping is probably well-aware that the Hong Kong protests, while given predominantly positive coverage in (western) media, are actually boosting China’s position in the world. As long as the CCP keeps their relatively gentle approach they will emerge from these protests stronger and with a weaker Hong Kong to deal with.

What are the protests about?