> Yes, it is very common to use exaggerations in Chinese and when a certain exaggeration is widely accepted, its figurative meaning took over its literal charac

> Yes, it is very common to use exaggerations in Chinese and when a certain exaggeration is widely accepted, its figurative meaning took over its literal character-by-character meaning. All that is also true in English, of course. But one does want to take context and history into account. If an office worker says "I'm gonna kick his ass" when a coworker makes a stupid mistake, you assume he's being figurative and is just going to reprimand the coworker. If a drunk guy with a history of violence says the same thing, a reasonable person assumes they intend actual violence. Given that China has a rich and recent history of using violence to suppress dissent, including in the specific situation we're discussing, Hong Kong, it seems pretty disingenuous to claim that their intentions here are purely peaceful.