> The problem is that we see how hard it is to see such a liberation/democratization campaign through. (Iraq, Afghanistan) I don’t think Iraq or Afghanistan is

> The problem is that we see how hard it is to see such a liberation/democratization campaign through. (Iraq, Afghanistan) I don’t think Iraq or Afghanistan is a fair comparison to Hong Kong regarding the progress or prospect of liberation/democratization. For one, Hong Kongers have been used to elections for almost 30 years now (since 1991), have practiced free press and rule of law, and mostly free of corruption, so I think Taiwan may be a closer comparison in terms of how liberation/democratization of Hong Kong would become. The recent frustration towards elections in Hong Kong (which is also one root cause of the on-going protests) is that the elections are far from representative or universal suffrage (half of the seats in the Legislative Council–the functional constituencies–have pretty limited representation, while the Chief Executive is elected by a pro-Beijing committee of 1200 out of a population of 7M+), and that some elected members of the Legislative Council who are pro-Hong Kong got outright disqualified. A liberation/democratization of Hong Kong means such issues are fixed, which is more like Taiwan than Iraq or Afghanistan. > Great, what if the people are trigger happy xenophobics? I would say that xenophobism would not be a problem in Hong Kong, because the pro-democratic (and even the localist) camp cherish cultural values and core values (e.g. democracy, freedom, and rule of law), and ignore differences in ethnicity or origin. For example, Edward Leung, currently in prison but was a key figure of the localist group Hong Kong Indigenous, was born in Wuhan, China. For another example, Nabela Qoser, a Pakistani news reporter who speaks fluent Cantonese and long regarded as a Hong Konger, is called a heroine by the pro-democratic and localist camp for asking pointed questions towards the Chief Executive (Carrie Lam) during the most recent press conference on 22 July. By contrast, the pro-Beijing establishment (and anti-democratic) camp is in general more xenophobic: quite a number of their supporters are against the presense of non-Chinese (in terms of ethnicity).