Ex-Tiananmen leaders say HK protesters biggest risk would be loss of public support

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former student leaders and activists involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing say the biggest danger to pro-democracy demonstrators currently confronting the Chinese authorities in Hong Kong is if they lose support from people in the territory and become marginalized.

They say that is a much bigger risk than any possibility of a violent crackdown by Hong Kong police or Chinese soldiers stationed in the territory. In particular, if people can't go about their daily business and the economy starts to suffer badly then public support could quickly drop, leaving the students and others in the protests isolated, warned several of the former protest organizers now living in the U.S.