Although the hardcore anti-government forces billed Sunday's march in Hong Kong as "the last chance" for the special administrative region government to swallow their demands, it is unlikely that many, including themselves, think the government will concede to the implied threat of more unrest.

In their parlance, it seems that it was only their forbearance that ensured the rally was peaceful. But in fact, they had no choice but to yield to the common will of the majority of those taking part in it. The ordinary residents who participated in the rally were easy to spot. Being law-abiding citizens they have no fear of the police and dressed normally unlike the black-clad mask-wearers who were out to cause trouble.

Although most of those who participated in the rally went home in the evening, those diehard rioters could not wait to start barricading the roads, preparing for a standoff with the police. However, they soon abandoned their efforts due to a lack of numbers and the absence of the heady atmosphere necessary to fuel their adrenaline.

No wonder passers-by knitted their brows on encountering sporadic acts of vandalism and arson.

Among the targets of which, ironically, was the High Court of Hong Kong. It was firebombed for the first time shortly after it denied some bail applications from detained rioters late last month. Until then, the rioters had been able to deem the court to be the home of allies due to the leniency shown to their lawbreaking by the judges.

The rally was therefore more like the "last chance" Hong Kong residents granted to the rioters to reflect how much damage their violence is doing to the city.

The radicals have cunningly condensed the different appeals into the sound bite of "five demands, not one less", but this has converged people's longing for the government to help them with practical needs such as housing with the unlawful demands of the radicals making it seem as if all speak with one voice.

But the rioting is nothing but secessionist sentiment fueled by the United States at a critical moment in its confrontation with China. It has hijacked a wave of civil protests in Hong Kong to put pressure on Beijing.

The rioters and ordinary Hong Kong residents taking part in the rally are fundamentally divided in their appeals, which is manifested in the miscellaneous flags, including the Stars and Stripes, the Union Jack, and even the secessionist banners reading "liberate Hong Kong" held aloft by the radicals participating in the rally.

With the widening gap between the "five-demanders" and other residents, the peace, although described as fragile, has lasted since two weeks prior to the local elections, that is almost a month. The rioters might still be hellbent on putting up a desperate fight at the call of their backstage manipulators but their campaign has already been exposed as an unholy bargain between different political interests, none of which care what happens to Hong Kong.