Thus The New York Times today. “The front-page commentary on Thursday in People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s main newspaper, appeared to shut the door on any compromise,” explains the newspaper. But of course. What else could have been expected? Compromise, what compromise? Although I sympathize with the people protesting in Hong Kong, it was clear from the very beginning that no compromise is possible in today’s China. In spite of its amazing economic success in the last three decades or so, it is still teetering on the precipice politically speaking. Any compromise in any of its provinces would ultimately compromise the country as a whole. And that should have been clear to the protesters from the very start. The same holds for all the sympathizers in the so-called west. The only option available to the Chinese Communist Party is “chaos,” whatever that means. Lacking any other information, Tiananmen Square is a good example of how persisting protests are resolved in China. The army marches in and cleans up the mess in a few days, if not hours. Hoping for anything else is shear fantasy, to be sure. The only mystery is when the army will march in. Today? Tomorrow?