Pageantry in Beijing. Firebombs in Hong Kong.

As China celebrated 70 years of Communist Party rule, scenes of pageantry, pride and unity in Beijing contrasted with the firebombs, rubber bullets and mass protests in Hong Kong. We look at what this day of contradictions tells us about the simmering unrest in the territory. Guests: Javier C. Hernández, a China correspondent for The New York Times reporting from Hong Kong, spoke with Natalie Kitroeff, a business reporter for The Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• The violent confrontations in Hong Kong have presented a challenge to the image of unshakable control that President Xi Jinping of China has sought to project.
• As an American journalist in Beijing, our colleague was accustomed to a watchful Chinese government. But never before had the police insisted on occupying his home.
• A timeline of the summer of protests in Hong Kong: how they started, why they grew and how the government has responded.

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