Protesters have flooded Hong Kong’s airport, paralyzing operations and escalating tensions between the semiautonomous territory and Beijing. The protesters are trying to send a message to government officials — and to people in mainland China. Guest: Javier C. Hern?ndez, a New York Times correspondent based in Beijing. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• Demonstrations led the airport, one of the world’s busiest, to suspend check-ins for two days in a row this week, causing hundreds of flight cancellations. On Wednesday, some protesters apologized for the disruption.
• The unrest is exposing the inherent conflict in Hong Kong’s political system since China reclaimed the territory from Britain in 1997: an effort to unite Beijing’s authoritarianism with civil liberties.
• Here’s a guide to what prompted the Hong Kong protests, and a look at how they have evolved.