At the start of this month, the photographer Moises Saman spent a weekend documenting Hong Kong’s protests for the New Yorker. His slide show contains a dozen images, few of which, it seems to me, quite capture the essence of what’s been taking place in the city. Alongside them, though, is a brief commentary focusing very adroitly on what makes Hong Kong 2014 so special. “My experience in Hong Kong could not have been more different than in Cairo, Tunis, Tripoli, and Hama… In Hong Kong, I observed astounding restraint by both the police and the protesters.” To conclude: “I do not know if the civil nature of Hong Kong’s protest will last. But I am left wondering what allows this society to exercise such restraint while other societies have been so quick to turn to violence.”

Two weeks on, Hong Kong has witnessed some targeted thuggery and police brutality. Still, though, Saman’s point holds – why no rapid descent into violence? The main part of an explanation must surely be found in the intrinsic decency of Hong Kong people, which for decades since Tiananmen 1989 has generated quite astoundingly peaceful political protest. But that can’t be a full explanation, for just two decades before Tiananmen, in 1967, the city was convulsed by leftist riots that saw 51 people killed, including five police officers. So political violence can happen.

What else, then, is going on here? My sense is that another factor, alongside the mutual loathing now felt on both sides of Hong Kong’s polarized politics, is fear. Among protesters lies a pervasive awareness of what an authoritarian state is capable of doing if really pushed. Within the establishment is found a parallel fear of unleashing the full might of an autocratic sovereign, and thereby stepping over a line not yet crossed in the Special Administrative Region.

Hong Kong’s non-violent politics is a thing of beauty much to be treasured. The fear that increasingly underpins it is an ugly feature of this very unusual society and near-unique political setting. Sadly, it appears unlikely to dissipate for some time to come.