China is signalling that it is at once implacable but somewhat patient
of Kublai Khan’s empire-building career, his reputation for ferocity was such that Mongol armies conquered some cities with handwritten notes, wrapped around arrows and fired over the walls. A typical letter urged inhabitants to submit at once to avoid a siege that was sure to end in mass slaughter. Vanquished local rulers, if lucky, might be granted a princely death, sewn into a sack and then trampled by horses.
Privately, some informed figures in Beijing play down the idea that October 1st is a deadline for ending the impasse, murmuring that Hong Kong, a tiny place of 7m people, cannot overshadow celebrations by a motherland of 1.4bn citizens. That raises a question: if , what do party leaders have in mind for Hong Kong?
Less visible, but just as important, is a looming purge within the bit of Hong Kong that resembles a technocracy: the world of professionals who, for better or worse, have helped to run Hong Kong since colonial times, in the absence of full democracy. With youngsters dominating so many protests, Hong Kong’s schools and university campuses will be early targets for scrutiny. Ominously, a prominent pro-mainland politician talks of educators who “hate China” and teach the same to their students.
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