No quick ending to Hong Kong conflict, says U of S professor

The conflict in Hong Kong is escalating every day, but a University of Saskatchewan professor doesn’t think a conclusion will come anytime soon.

Dr. Martin Gaal, a political studies professor, told 650 CKOM’s Brent Loucks the Chinese government isn’t likely to cave to protester demands.

“Anything that could be considered to be independent-minded is a red flag (to them),” he said.

At the same time, the protesters are difficult to suppress.

“There’s no leadership to arrest. (The protests) are a very decentralized social movement.”

These two factors combine to make a peaceful solution difficult.

“There are two parties that are each making demands the other can’t engage with … so we have this odd standoff of a government with a lot of power and no real historical reticence to use it, and a decentralized social movement that’s making demands the government doesn’t know how to address,” he explained.

Despite this, Beijing has held off from using military force so far. Instead, they use manipulation tactics.

“They’re using a propaganda machine, both within Hong Kong and mainland China to frame this in a particular way, and just keep stasis to the point where the movement loses steam,” Gaal said.

However, the protesters have pushed back against these efforts.

“It hasn’t lost steam yet. There seems to be strong support within Hong Kong for the protesters, and the demands have evolved to be much stronger than just the withdrawal of the extradition bill.”

With all of this considered, it’s impossible to predict how and when peace will come to Hong Kong.

“It’s hard to see where we’re going to move from here.”