This is John Batchner, conversation with colleague Josh Rogan of the Washington Post about

Xi Jinping telling Joe Biden at the Lima-Peru APEC meeting, one of his red lines is human rights.

Don't poke into the People's Republic of China's business as we put on trial Jimmy Lai of Apple Daily,

45 young people who wanted democracy in Hong Kong,

and other extreme behavior by the People's Republic of China.

The question here is, will Donald Trump coming into office listen to Xi Jinping and back off from

human rights? What's in it for Donald Trump's administration? Josh makes the case, the rule of

law is in it for his administration, and that matters a deal if you're trying to do business

in Hong Kong and the mainland.

It's Josh Rogen to explain more of this tonight.

He's trying. We'll see. We'll see. I mean, he wouldn't be faulted for thinking that the United States and Washington

and the U.S. government doesn't care about Hong Kong, considering the fact that in the last four years we haven't done anything about it,

some piecemeal sanctions here and there.

But overall, there's a sort of a lazy consensus in Washington,

and Hong Kong is lost.

But I argue, again, that that's not true and ought not to be true,

and that the United States does a role to play in standing up for political prisoners, and the reason that Trump might be

interested if he doesn't care about political prisoners is that once you crush Hong Kong's

freedoms, Xi Jinping has crushed the rule of law in Hong Kong, which means it's really not safe

for any Americans or any American businesses. And, you know, if you want to do law in Hong Kong, which means it's really not safe for any Americans or any American businesses.

And, you know, if you want to do business in Hong Kong, it might be nice to know that the courts are legit,

and it might be nice to know that contracts are honored.

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