Hongkongers are now shouting and describing their protests as part of the “Hongkong Revolution”

Hongkong police made a legal headway yesterday when they secured a court order prohibiting protesters from massing up in the country’s international airports. In recent days, there has been delays in international flights to and fro the city as thousands of protesters made the busy international terminal a protest area. Police had just cleared the airports of protesters.

Right now, thousands are massing up in Victoria Peak, in open defiance against Beijing. The Communist Party leadership of China had already warned of severe consequences. In recent past, tolerance is one term which the Beijing leadership had been known to scoff and in its stead, use brutal state forces.

What’s different now is that these Hong Kong protests morphed from just a protest against a highly questionable extradition bill to calls for independence, which both the existing leadership in the island and of Beijing find extremely unacceptable. Banners calling for an independent Hongkong will definitely not sit well with the Communist Party whose leaders would consider those as direct threats against China.

The question everyone is asking now– what will China do? Will it send its military forces to deal with these recalcitrant elements in Hongkong? Such scenarios are being floated about weeks before, with authorities hoping to cut the numbers of Hongkongers taking part in street protests.

An attack against the island by People’s Liberation Army liberation forces would send a very strong negative signal against China to the international community. That will drive the expatriate and international business community away from the island and drive the island city into its worse economic recession in decades.