gt;     Edited by Ruby Mellen Share Share Tips/Feedback   BY ISHAAN THAROOR Hong Kong’s stunning vote deepens China’s conundrum People celebrate Monday outside a polling station in Hong Kong. (Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Images) For months, millions of Hong Kongers have taken to the  streets in defense of their unique political freedoms,  clamoring for greater democratic reforms while waging street  battles with the city’s increasingly brutal police forces.  On Sunday, they delivered the same message in a different format:  the ballot box. Backed by record voter turnout,  pro-democracy politicians swept Hong Kong’s local  district elections, seizing control of more than 80 percent  of the contested seats. The verdict was unmistakable and another stinging riposte to China’s authoritarian leadership in Beijing. Unlike Hong Kong’s process to select its leader — a baroque system involving an election committee of  around 1,200 members, many of whom are  handpicked by Beijing — these local elections reflected  more directly the public mood in the former British colony.  In the run-up to the vote, there was still speculation that it  could be canceled amid the chaos and violence convulsing  the city. Some analysts reckoned that fatigue with the protests , as well as the greater financial clout and resources of  pro-Beijing parties in the city, would humble the  pro-democracy camp. But the opposite turned out to  be the case: The elections were carried out in an  orderly and peaceful fashion, with more than 70  percent voter turnout. By comparison, district elections in 2015  yielded only a 47 percent turnout. “The councils have very little actual power,” explained the New York Times. “They advise the government on neighborhood issues like the location of bus stops, not  big questions like democracy. But the democrats’ victory  also means that they will gain a larger say on the committee  that chooses the territory’s chief executive in 2022.” Hong Kong’s pro-democracy supporters now believe they  have a mandate to press forward their many demands,  including possibly the resignation of Carrie Lam,  Hong Kong’s embattled pro-Beijing leader, as well as   an inquest into police accountability after months of  violence and a slate of deep political reforms. “The  district council election fully shows that Hong Kong peoplewil  not accept the authoritarianism of the central government,  Wu Chi-wai, chairman of the Democratic Party, said to my  colleagues.“The Hong Kong government must now seriously  consider public opinion.” Lam could only muster a timid statement, indicatin thatshe  recognized “that the results reflect people’s dissatisfaction with the curret situation and the deep-seated problems in  society” and that her government would “seriously reflect.” For Lam, who has failed to quell the protests and  done much  to stoke public outrage, the situation seems  increasingly untenable. Joseph Cheng, retired political  science professor at the City University of Hong Kong , told the Guardian that the election was  “a slap on the cheek for Carrie Lam’s administration  who insisted that the silent majority [of Hong Kongers]  was supporting the government.” He added that there  may not be any path to “normality” under Lam’s watch  in Hong Kong. The protesters have vowed to continue their demonstrations  and actions until their demands are met. My colleagues laid out the tricky way ahead: “With this rebuke of its  affiliates in the city, Beijing faces a tough choice:  whether to open up politics as promised in Hong Kong’s  mini-constitution, extend a crackdown on the  pro-democracy protesters by the city’s police  force and government, or try to navigate a  delicate middle path.” Many in Hong Kong hope for moderation and conciliation.  “It is up to Beijing to make use of the carrots and sticks  it has in shaping the city’s development ,” noted an editorial in the South China Morning Post. “But  an approach that reflects majority wishes will go a  long way in winning support and fostering   stability and prosperity.” But there’s little indication that Beijing is at all interested  in indulging Hong Kong’s majority. Chinese state media  cast the elections as the product of foreign interference and misinformation. For President Xi Jinping, Hong Kong’s elections underscored a grim week of headlines, capped by new  revelations about China’s vast system of repression in  the far western region of Xinjiang. Though Xi may be  straining under internal pressures, few analysts  believe Beijing will countenance a full capitulation from Lam’s government. “Trapped in an echo chamber of its own making, Beijing has,  at every juncture, doubled down on its hardline rhetoric that  the protesters represent an independence movement committing acts of terrorism, with the support of overseas  governments and Western media,”  wrote Quartz’s Isabella Steger. “While the strategy  played well to a nationalism-fueled domestic audience,  especially as protests escalated in violence over months,   in practice it leaves little room for the party to climb down,  and find new and flexible ways of engaging with the genuine  demands of the movement which include greater democratic representation and an investigation into police brutality.” As an opaque political system struggles to reckon with a  democratic uprising, the specter of greater violence still looms.  “Whether it is just a continued tone-deaf response, whether  it is harsher crackdowns, [Beijing seems] singularly unable  to make any adjustments to their game plan,”  Christopher Balding, an American academic formerly based  in China, told my colleague Anna Fifield. • Beyond the new evidence of repression in Xinjiang,  Fifield also looked at an embarrassing incident for Xi that took place in Australia: The defection of a man purporting to be a  Chinese spy who has been trying to influence elections  in Taiwan and Hong Kong and kidnap dissidents.