This is heart breaking.
Coming to the physical defense of HongKong seems completely untenable. I really think they need to find a way get whatever leverage they can possibly get with China without forcing escallation.
I don’t think they’re hoping for physical defence or weapons drops as they know they can’t win that way. There are other forms of international pressure that has helped in the past though.
Civil disobedience, of course. Didn’t work great at Tienanmen Square II back in ‘89 (the first Tienanmen Square massacre occurred in 1919). But it worked for Gandhi and MLK. It might work this time, because the PRC dearly wants Hong Kong’s economic dynamism, and wants to showcase it to the world to show how nice they can pretend to be.
Couldn’t we arm them or get someone to help them with an underground setup? Through a third party of course. As we have done hundreds of times.
Yet Trump held off on tariffs...