Hong Kong: "Small Group of Rioters" amounts to an electoral landslide.

Pro-democracy candidates flipped 17 of 18 councils, taking 77% of the seats.

About that last holdout:

The only council held by the pro-establishment camp was the 18-member Islands district, where eight seats were handed out automatically to pro-establishment rural chiefs.

From the Federalist:

For months, Beijing has insisted that Hong Kong protesters are nothing but a small group of “rioters” who like to cause trouble and have no public support. The resounding victory of pro-democracy candidates discredits Beijing’s claim. It’s a great humiliation for Hong Kong Chief Carrie Lam and especially for Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Hong Kongers just showed him they have something much more powerful than tanks, live ammunition, tear gas, and soldiers.

This is by no means the end of Beijing's strong-armed influence, but it may serve a a serious roadblock China's goals in general, and Xi Jinping's strategy of fomenting disinterest in the region to the wider world.

It has just become far more difficult to sell the idea that Hong Kong's citizens are pro-assimilation to the international community.

posted by krakatoa at 03:00 PM

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