More than two weeks after failing to shift pro-democracy protesters with tear gas and pepper spray, police in Hong Kong have begun to step up pressure on the demonstrators to abandon their street barricades. Their tactics, which range from more pepper spray to the dismantling of bamboo fortifications with chainsaws, have done little to persuade a determined core of several hundred protesters from keeping up their occupation of several main roads. Rhetoric both from Hong Kong's government as well as from Beijing suggests the authorities' patience is wearing thin.
The Economist: Police clear away barricades, but protesters refuse to give up in Hong Kong protests
Pro-democracy protesters (R) protect a barricade from rival protest groups (L) in the Mongkok district of Hong Kong on Oct. 4, 2014.
