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China has made it clear that while it believes the local government can handle the crisis in Hong Kong, it will not sit back and watch if the situation becomes uncontrollable.

Speaking earlier this month, Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to London, issued a stark warning: “We have enough solutions and enough power to put this to an end”. Chinese paramilitary police have also been filmed by the government staging exercises just across the border on Shenzen, in what many regard as a thinly veiled threat.

This is not the first time Hong Kong has witnessed massive pro-democracy demonstrations. But the \"umbrella revolution\" of 2014 saw sharp divisions between the nonviolent protesters and the more hard-line elements. Tong admitted that this time. the groups are working together and supporting each other, making this situation much more formidable.

After a day of violence last Sunday, we witnessed bystanders in a shopping mall applauding the protesters and others stood in the rain, berating the police. The failures of the past also appear to explain why this has become a zero-sum game for the demonstrators whose slogan is “it’s now or never.\"

\"PHOTO:
Thomas Peter/Reuters
PHOTO: Police fire tear gas at anti-extradition bill protesters during clashes in Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong, China, August 14, 2019.
>

I met Citizen X again last Sunday as he and his crew were gearing up for the end of a march and what looked to be a standoff and confrontation with the police, breaking a hiatus of almost two weeks. He stated that the Aug. 18 demonstration was peaceful, but the \"government doesn’t respond.” \"That is why we need a further expression of our demands by more aggressive means,” he added.

Citizen X weaved through the crowd to the front of the standoff. The riot police were already gathered, facing our direction. He pulled out his gas mask and helmet and thick gloves to protect against incoming tear gas. The police unfurled the first of a series of banners used to warn the crowds away.

It was the red flag, “STOP CHARGING OR WE USE FORCE.\"

Wheelbarrows full of bricks, jemmied from the sidewalk by protesters, were wheeled forward to a makeshift barricade that seemed to grow by the minute. The mood was taut. Everyone expected trouble.

Then the black banner was unfurled, “WARNING, TEAR GAS”.

\"PHOTO:
Aidan Marzo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
PHOTO: Protesters take cover as tear gas is being fired towards them by the police during the demonstration, Hong Kong, China, August 25, 2019.
>

It was now no longer a matter of whether, but when.

Citizen X compared his struggle to that of America’s fight for independence. “Today in the eyes of the communist government we are just a group of rioters. But I believe that the Founding Fathers initially were also seen by the British, by the colonial rulers as rioters,” he said.

“Will they see us as rioters or will they see us as founding fathers,\" he wondered. \"That will be determined by our actions in the future months in the coming protests.”

Just then, the orange banner was unfurled, “DISPERSE OR WE FIRE.”

At that moment, there seemed little way out of this impasse that risks becoming ever-more confrontational. This is all or nothing for the protesters. Citizen X wanted us to understand there is now no turning back. “We cannot give up and back down at this stage,” he said.

The crowd roared and Citizen X disappeared in a pall of acrid smoke from a relentless barrage of tear gas as a pitched battle for the future of Hong Kong raged and burned long into the night.

Karson Yiu, Patrick Sum, Alan Kwok, Justin Solomon and Caroline Kwok contributed reporting.

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