It is clear, in fact, that China’s leaders are scared to death of their own people. As noted earlier, at the very beginning of the economic reforms forty years ago, Deng declared there would be no political reform, no lessening of controls over the people. Tiananmen Square was a fire bell in the night. The massive and prolonged protests in Hong Kong in 2019 served as a new, vivid reminder that the greatest danger to communist rule in China is not from abroad but from within—the Chinese people.
