Turmoil in Hong Kong symptom of deep-seated social problems

The ongoing turbulence in Hong Kong reminds me of a phone interview I had with a BBC journalist in September 2014 during the "Occupy Central" demonstration in the special administrative region.

In the interview, I clearly sensed the journalist' s excitement as if a great "Color Revolution" had erupted in Hong Kong and would soon spread across China. I jolted him back to reality by saying it was a wrong movement at the wrong time in the wrong place, and as such had no basis to succeed, it would fail.

When he asked why, I said that if "Occupy Central" did not affect Hong Kong's economy or its residents' livelihoods, no one would care about it, even if it lasted 100 years, but now it was affecting the livelihoods of Hong Kong people, and thus they would eventually rise up and stop it. If the Hong Kong SAR government could not handle the problem on its own, the central government could give it a helping hand.