Tuesday last week was Oct. 1, China’s National Day. On that very day, a Hong Kong police officer shot a masked youth wearing black clothes. When the youngster’s mask was removed, he turned out to be a fifth-form student at a secondary school, equivalent to the second year of senior-high school in Taiwan.
Two days earlier, on Sunday last week, the Hong Kong police arrested a large number of black-clad youths, and when their masks were removed, one of them turned out to be a physician who works at a public hospital.
The crackdown is quite a contrast with the tolerance shown by police on July 21, when they connived with alleged triad gangsters who attacked people in a subway station.
On National Day, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) showed off its might with a massive military parade in Beijing, but what future can there be for a government that finds it necessary to join hands with gangsters to attack upstanding citizens?
Many people have been wondering whether Hong Kong could be the breach in the wall of the CCP regime.
Japan’s Meiji Restoration started in the Choshu Domain (modern-day Yamaguchi Prefecture), which had frequent interactions with Westerners. While the Tokugawa shogunate was trying to uphold its conservative order, Choshu was adopting Western ideas.
Similarly, China’s Qing Dynasty met its end in Guangzhou, which had a great deal of contact with Western nations.
While the Qing government in Beijing was fixated on the idea of building a strong navy, revolutionaries in Guangzhou were launching wave after wave of demonstrations and uprisings.
Eventually, Guangzhou turned out to be the breach in the wall of the Qing regime.
Hong Kong has inherited Western traditions of democracy and freedom. Young Hong Kongers, with little concern for their own safety, are determined to stand or fall together.
These pro-democracy advocates have made considerable sacrifice, but the outwardly powerful CCP regime is paying an even higher price.
The CCP has ruled China for 70 years. During the first 50 of those years, the Chinese people were mired in poverty and caught up in waves of political struggle.
The tens of millions of people who perished under the CCP’s misrule far outnumber those killed in China’s long war with Japan.
Fortunately, life in China over the past 20 years has not been quite so difficult. These easier time have been made possible by the policy of “reform and opening up,” which has allowed an influx of technology and capital from the West.
The CCP simply stepped aside so that Western technology and money could come in and make life a little better for those living in China.
If Hong Kong police oppress young people so much that Western nations respond with sanctions, could China’s prosperity continue without the investment and revenue that it has gotten used to receiving from them?
As soon as China’s economy slows down or goes into recession, the Chinese people might start to understand that the CCP stands in the way of progress.
If there had been no CCP to begin with, the Chinese would not have suffered those 50 years of hardship. Without the CCP, China would have developed long ago, just like Hong Kong did.
Who says Hong Kong cannot be the breach in the Chinese wall?
Mike Chang is an accountant.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Congratulations to China’s working class — they have officially entered the “Livestock Feed 2.0” era. While others are still researching how to achieve healthy and balanced diets, China has already evolved to the point where it does not matter whether you are actually eating food, as long as you can swallow it. There is no need for cooking, chewing or making decisions — just tear open a package, add some hot water and in a short three minutes you have something that can keep you alive for at least another six hours. This is not science fiction — it is reality.
A foreign colleague of mine asked me recently, “What is a safe distance from potential People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force’s (PLARF) Taiwan targets?” This article will answer this question and help people living in Taiwan have a deeper understanding of the threat. Why is it important to understand PLA/PLARF targeting strategy? According to RAND analysis, the PLA’s “systems destruction warfare” focuses on crippling an adversary’s operational system by targeting its networks, especially leadership, command and control (C2) nodes, sensors, and information hubs. Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, noted in his 15 May 2025 Sedona Forum keynote speech that, as
In a world increasingly defined by unpredictability, two actors stand out as islands of stability: Europe and Taiwan. One, a sprawling union of democracies, but under immense pressure, grappling with a geopolitical reality it was not originally designed for. The other, a vibrant, resilient democracy thriving as a technological global leader, but living under a growing existential threat. In response to rising uncertainties, they are both seeking resilience and learning to better position themselves. It is now time they recognize each other not just as partners of convenience, but as strategic and indispensable lifelines. The US, long seen as the anchor
Kinmen County’s political geography is provocative in and of itself. A pair of islets running up abreast the Chinese mainland, just 20 minutes by ferry from the Chinese city of Xiamen, Kinmen remains under the Taiwanese government’s control, after China’s failed invasion attempt in 1949. The provocative nature of Kinmen’s existence, along with the Matsu Islands off the coast of China’s Fuzhou City, has led to no shortage of outrageous takes and analyses in foreign media either fearmongering of a Chinese invasion or using these accidents of history to somehow understand Taiwan. Every few months a foreign reporter goes to
RSS