By Brian Kennedy for The Hill
Lost in the escalating crisis in Hong Kong is the simple question of, ‘why now?’ Why did President Xi Jinping choose, in the middle of sensitive trade talks with the United States, to provoke a crisis in Hong Kong over a proposed extradition law. The answer is simple: to make trade negotiations more complicated, to put President Donald Trump in a seemingly no-win situation, and to demonstrate to Hong Kong, Taiwan and surrounding areas who is master of Asia. Understanding this is paramount.
