Aggressive policing, an unmoved government and plummeting trust levels have opened up an unbridgeable gap between Hong Kong's authorities and its people. (Source images by Nicola Longobardi)

Running out of options, Hong Kong protesters dig in

Police crackdowns have failed, and protesters have no trust in dialogue with an intransigent administration

MICHELLE CHAN and NIKKI SUN, Nikkei staff writers, and DEAN NAPOLITANO, Nikkei Asian Review deputy editor

September 25, 2019 13:23 JST

HONG KONG -- On June 9, Jason So joined the sea of people stretching from Hong Kong's Victoria Park to its seat of government at Admiralty. On that day, more than a million people took to the streets to protest against a proposed bill allowing criminal suspects to be deported from Hong Kong to the mainland, a law that many saw as emblematic of a wider, creeping erosion of the city's treasured civil liberties.