Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests over the summer have seen massive turnouts of 1 million people or more as well as violent encounters with police, notes Ching Kwan Lee, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles and a visiting professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. So after 11 straight weeks, where do things stand? Here are five things to know, she writes for The Post’s Monkey Cage:
National Endowment for Democracy
The bottom line? Overall, the official rhetoric from either Beijing or the Hong Kong government has failed to turn public opinion around: 68 percent of Hong Kong citizens in one poll thought the police had used excessive force, while only 39 percent said the same about the protesters. Fifty-seven percent of respondents blamed the government’s handling of the extradition bill controversy for Hong Kong’s economic distress, while only 8.5 percent blamed protesters.
Both sides appear to have dug in for a prolonged and proliferating struggle for Hong Kong’s future, Ching concludes.
