Evan Osnos and Jiayang Fan on the Hong Kong Protests
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 14 October 2019
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The months of protests in Hong Kong may be the biggest political crisis facing Chinese leadership since the Tiananmen Square massacre a generation ago. What began as objections to a proposed extradition law has morphed into a broad-based protest movement. “There was just this rising panic that Hong Kong was becoming just like another mainland city, utterly under the thumb of the Party,” says Jiayang Fan, who recently returned from Hong Kong. In Beijing, Evan Osnos spoke to officials during their celebration of the Chinese Communist Party’s seventieth year in power. He found that the leadership is feeling more secure than it did in 1989, when tanks mowed down student protesters. “I think the more likely scenario,” Osnos tells David Remnick, “is that China will keep up the pressure and gradually use its sheer weight and persistence to try to grind down the resistance of protestors.”
Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choicesTranscript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi there, I'm Lale Arikoglu, and this podcast is brought to you by Wilderness, a conservation-driven |
| 0:06.4 | hospitality company that offers intimate world life encounters in extraordinary remote landscapes. |
| 0:12.5 | Last year, I embarked on two separate solo adventures with Wilderness, one to Botswana and the other |
| 0:18.2 | to Namibia, where the expert guides delivered a truly once-in-a-lifetime |
| 0:23.6 | experience. I promise you, whatever you watch and see before you go won't prepare you for the thrill |
| 0:29.4 | of a wilderness adventure. eBay, it's a place to fall in love with new pre-loved vintage and rare |
| 0:36.6 | fashion over and over again. |
| 0:39.0 | Your favorite designers, expertly authenticated. |
| 0:42.5 | Yeah, eBay. |
| 0:44.0 | Things people love. |
| 0:48.4 | I'm Dorothy Wickendon. |
| 0:49.9 | On today's Politics and More podcast, David Remnick talks with New Yorker staff writers, Jiang Fan and Evan Osnose. |
| 0:57.9 | They'll discuss the ongoing protests in Hong Kong and the response from the Chinese government. |
| 1:06.6 | Donald Trump has made China one of the defining issues of his presidency. |
| 1:11.2 | He seems to have done everything he can to provoke China. |
| 1:15.1 | He's ignited a trade war. |
| 1:16.7 | He's escalated tensions over North Korea and much more. |
| 1:20.1 | And yet instead of backing the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, |
| 1:24.8 | Trump has reportedly told President Xi Jinping that the United States would |
| 1:28.7 | remain silent about democracy as they worked out their trade deal. The protests in Hong Kong |
| 1:34.4 | against Beijing's rule have been going on now for months. Combined with slowing economic growth |
| 1:39.7 | across the country, they've created a political crisis for Xi Jinping right at a time when the Communist |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.