I Expect to See Chinese Tanks in Hong Kong

While Beijing may be loath to kill the goose that laid the golden egg, but there is one thing that will make the PRC crack down on Hong Kong, and that is if it results in fallout with Taiwan.

It now appears that the Hong Kong protests are now stoking the fires in Taiwan, and while the Chinese do not currently have the resources to enforce their will across the Taiwan Straight, they do .

Basically, anything indicating a move toward a Taiwanese declaration of sovereignty, and the People's Republic will completely lose their sh%$, and if they tie this to Hong Kong protests, I would expect a military intervention there:

The protests in Hong Kong which have reverberated around the world have had more impact on Taiwan than anywhere else.

The anxieties they triggered about Beijing's intentions toward Taiwan came to the boil in demonstrations in Taipei. On Sunday June 23, for example, a rally by around 5,000 mostly young people against Hong Kong's controversial extradition bill was followed by a much larger protest involving hundreds of thousands criticizing Chinese influence on Taiwan's media.

They urged the government to take action against the so-called "Red Media," a reference to local outlets purchased by business people with interests in China.

While the Red Media are at the front of the Taiwanese protesters' complaints, the extradition law is clearly not far behind. The fear that Beijing is tightening its grip on the former British colony exacerbates Taiwanese people's fears about their own futures -- and brings Taiwanese and Hong Kongers closer together.

I have a bad feeling about this.