Inside Hong Kong’s Airport

Hi, I was fascinated by your episode on the Hong Kong protest at the airport. There are a few points that I want to point out hopefully someone will listen and try to understand: 1- The idea that mainlander don't understand what democracy is or don't care about it is false, especially those who traveled, studied, and lived abroad. You are oversimplifying and stereotyping typical Chinese about their thoughts on democracy and system of government. This applies to the protesters as well. The fact that they look down on mainlanders itself is a self-centered superiority attitude rooted from the colonial and higher economic status past. These complexity are not directly related to democracy itself but more related to cultural, economical, and historical context. To say the least, most Chinese feel that a mature democracy can only happen when a civil society is formed with certain amount of wealth and middle class support. In a relatively poor society, a democracy will simply create chaos and civil strive, and opportunists tend to be the ultimate winners. Look at Egypt and many other examples, you can understand why people are hesitant to support such system as an outcome of popular unrest. 2- US may not have a direct hands in this movement, but you must agree that the track record of US NGO in color revolutions are pretty solid. Regardless whether they are doing a just cause, the outcome in those countries are hardly desirable. Look at Ukrine, Georgia, Poland, and on and on.

I agree that the Chinese perspective towards this protest in Hongkong is like a mother looking at her ungrateful child, "I fed you and clothed you, why are you still unhappy with me", which is precisely my initial opinion on this matter. I grew up in the new international hub of China -- Shanghai, and I had a legal education in Australia. So, I do understand both sides' opinion. But when the peaceful protest turned violent especially after the HK government has benched the Extradition Bill to meet the protestors' original goal, it is hard for me not to believe there's foreign power behind it. If you have read the draft of the Extradition Bill, it doesn't allow Mainland Government to extradite anyone with a political crime, which was the starting point of this protest. Someone with an evil intention is spreading the rumour among civilians to make them believe this Bill will take away their freedom of speech. This is a very organised crime! They are not only being fonded but also being told what to do. Plus, there are numerous pictures showing the alleged American sponsor meeting with the protestors, wearing the signature black T-shirt with a walkie talkie in his hand BTW, I have a friend that was at the airport yesterday, she posted the protestor only handing out food and water to westerners with the apology sign but being hostile and rude to the Chinese people there. WHO IS TWISTING THE TRUTH HERE?

This episode about the HK protests was so insightful. I particularly appreciated the commentary that the Chinese are operating from their limited/controlled POV, the Chinese opinion on the collapse of the USSR and the conspiracy theory that the US is behind the protests. Thought provoking and puts many other things in context including the USA’s own issues with deciphering truth from propoganda. Thank you!

I am reading and listening with great interest to all the news out of Hong Kong. I thought the Reporter today was a tad ahistorical in his assessment of mainlands interests. It’s order over everything. Only with order will China, it believes, achieve international respect and economic dominance For its huge population. Javier kept saying it was all about money. Too simplistic.

Thanks for the transcript. Very helpful to read along with the audio.

My parents came to the US via Taiwan and previous to that, China -- *their* parents were part of the KMT retreat from China in 1949. Now they subscribe to CCTV, which is a suite of TV channels sponsored by the Chinese govt and a very smart propaganda tool, as along with the Chinese language cooking shows and soap operas, there's a lot of militaristic imagery served up during regular news broadcasts. My mother is convinced of the very same sentiments voiced by the mainland Chinese interviewed by JCH, ie that the US/CIA and British govts are behind the protests eg are backing leaders and funding the movement), and their motivation is that they are trying to stifle the rise of China. She refuses to recognize any other possibility. Anyway, just an example of how sophisticated and insidious the Chinese government's outreach is beyond the country's borders. A different game from Russia perhaps, but not less well planned I suspect.

Here's a few points regarding the United State's (some in the United States) hypocrisy regarding this Hong Kong mini-crisis: 1. What do you think Dept of Homeland Security would do with 10,000 protesters at the airport? (Hint: we have seen what they would do- Muslim ban-2017) 2. China/Hong Kong has abolished the extradition statute. Now, all those Jeffrey Epstein's and murderers hiding there (and there are many) can rest easy- no extradition. 3. Some protesters are carrying British flags!! I guess overlooking the cruel tyranny carried out by the Brits from 1841 to 1997 is passe. The coverage of this is ridiculous. The Cold War is over, or is it? I wonder if Big Business is riding their corporate media shills to put pressure on China so the Trade Tariff goes away?

I'm a little disappointed in the way that this was reported by Javier Hernández and the questions that Michael didn't ask. Javier attributes all of the thoughts on CIA involvement in encouraging the Hong Kong protests, and the Trump tariffs being a move to destabilize China to keep US world dominance, to the Beijing propaganda machine in a way that totally presumes that everything that Beijing propagates is irrelevant or flat out fake news. Michael, you really should have asked if there was any legitimacy in those claims by Beijing. Not addressing that assumes that there is zero legitimacy in the claims. The CIA has secretly stuck their nose into all sorts of world affairs that should have been outside the bounds of US involvement, what makes you assume that this could not also be one? Also, isn't the deduction of Trumps crack down on Huawei and the tariffs partly, if not primarily, a move to maintain some vestige of world economic domination? I think to say that it has no bering is absolute idiocy. I expect more from you all at TNYT.