November 28 2019, 12:01am,The Times

Richard Lloyd Parry

We in the West have no right to condemn the violence of protesters facing tyranny

We like our moral heroes to be cuddly, as well as brave, and for the first few months the democracy protesters of Hong Kong met both of these requirements. There were those immense peaceful processions in which dear old men with walking sticks marched alongside mums with pushchairs. There were the touchingly young and skinny leaders, such as Joshua Wong: earnest, bespectacled and well behaved. A million Davids stood up against the Goliath of the Chinese state and people around the world cheered until, in the past few weeks, it all started to turn nasty.

Banned by police from holding mass demonstrations, the wholesome family groups have yielded to a smaller corps of increasingly violent young protesters. They hide their faces behind masks and

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Excerpt from:

Hong Kong: Sometimes you have to fight for freedom - The Times