HONG KONG Forgotten by Washington: 2/4: Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World: What China's Crackdown Reveals About Its Plans to End Freedom Everywhere by Mark L. Clifford
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2023
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Today-Hong-Kong-Tomorrow-World/dp/1250279178
Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World tells the complete story of how a city once famed for protests so peaceful that toddlers joined grandparents in millions-strong rallies became a place where police have fired more than 10,000 rounds of tear gas, rubber bullets and even live ammunition at their neighbors, while pro-government hooligans attack demonstrators in the streets. A Hong Kong resident from 1992 to 2021, author Mark L. Clifford has witnessed this transformation firsthand. As a celebrated publisher and journalist, he has unrivaled access to the full range of the city’s society, from student protestors and political prisoners to aristocrats and senior government officials. A powerful and dramatic mix of history and on-the-ground reporting, this book is the definitive account of one of the most important geopolitical standoffs of our time.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh great! The Guardian is now delivering newspapers all over the UK to places like Manchester, Edinburgh and many more. |
| 0:06.7 | But what about us dogs? More visits from that pesky postman? |
| 0:10.0 | And look at my parents, totally preoccupied. Up to 25% offer home delivery subscription for them, |
| 0:15.3 | but no belly rubs for me. |
| 0:16.8 | Check whether your area is eligible today and subscribe when you visit the Guardian. |
| 0:20.8 | Com slash autumn delivery. |
| 0:22.0 | offer ends December 3rd, 2023. Open to UK and N.I. Guardian. I'm John Batcher with Mark Clifford, the author of today Hong Kong tomorrow the world, |
| 0:39.3 | what China's crackdown reveals about its plans to end freedom everywhere. |
| 0:44.0 | Hong Kong is part of the story of Europe discovering Asia, 16th century Portuguese, 18th century |
| 0:51.8 | the United Kingdom, empires come and go their colonial |
| 0:55.4 | masters. We race to the crisis of the 18th century which is the opium wars and then we race again to the Japanese |
| 1:06.4 | invasion of the mainland and the occupation of Hong Kong 41 to 45. |
| 1:13.0 | Hong Kong was attacked on the same day Pearl Harbor was attacked. |
| 1:16.0 | This moment, however, strikes me as revelatory in Mark's books. |
| 1:20.0 | And it's a story of how the people of Hong Kong were treated by London, the beloved |
| 1:29.3 | democracy, parliamentary democracy of London. |
| 1:33.0 | What I read Mark is that in 1945, August of 45, the British re-occupy Hong Kong. |
| 1:42.1 | They're the administrators. and there's a governor and there's the British |
| 1:46.1 | Empire. Churchill is moving on and there's a new foreign minister of his name is Bevin, that's a moment you note that Hong Kong |
| 1:57.5 | was ready for self-governance and there was something called the blimps that disregarded it. |
| 2:03.4 | Who were the blimps? |
| 2:04.5 | Well, yeah, great questions, a great moment that was not seized. |
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