As protests go, the pro-democracy march here on New Year's Day wasn't the biggest the territory has ever seen. Organizers claimed 30,000 participants, far short of the record 500,000-person antigovernment rally in 2003. The protest ended peacefully and no repeat is imminent.
But for the authoritarians in Beijing, the event offered an uncomfortable glimpse of their worst nightmare. Hong Kongers are again demonstrating that the bargain the Communist Party is trying to strike with the public, in Hong Kong and throughout China, isn't as sturdy as the Party had hoped.
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