All set for military intervention

Subdued: Riot police officers pouring water over a pepper sprayed protester as he is detained during an anti-government protest in front of a police station in Mong Kok district, Hong Kong. — Reuters

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam warned that the Chinese military could step in if an uprising for democratic reforms that has rocked the city for months “becomes so bad” but reiterated the government still hopes to resolve the crisis itself.

Lam urged foreign critics to accept that the four months of protests marked by escalating violence were no longer “a peaceful movement for democracy”.