When HK democrats may actually be preferable to China

Hong Kong

THAT old question, what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object, received a new answer on June 4 when tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong poured into Victoria Park for the 26th year in a row to commemorate those who died in Beijing in 1989 when tanks rumbled into the Chinese capital and converged on Tiananmen Square.

Democracy is the ostensibly irresistible force. A quarter of a century ago, communist dictatorships crumbled all over Europe in the face of citizen protests and were succeeded by governments more accountable to the people.