[w_s_l]

im quite surprised that they would be willing to take such a risky bet. but after seeing Crimea get a pass from the West, more and more countries with authoritarian regime have become emboldened further more with the US in political disarray.

It appears that the leadership's patience has run out and it is nervous that it will spread to other cities like Wuhan, in which there's currently a massive protest ongoing.

This almost certainly means elevated levels of violence. They've already deployed tanks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y1ezo6m8V8) in Wuhan which means the Hong Kong PLA garrison's APCs will be making a world media debut soon.

[moftz]

Very little news coverage on the Wuhan protests. Maybe it's not as big as it seems. Although all it takes for a revolution to start is for everyone to realize that everyone else is not happy with the situation. You can point to protestors and say "look at how unruly and dangerous these people are" but that image of protestor being beaten up could just be enough to embolden some people. If someone out there is willing to get beaten up for their ideals, those ideals must be pretty important to them.