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Hello and welcome to The Edition, the Spectator's weekly podcast, discussing some of the most important and intriguing issues within our pages each week with the writers behind them.

I'm Cindy Yu.

It's been a protest unlike any other that China has seen.

Since June, hundreds of thousands, by some estimates, millions of Hong Kongers have protested against the Chinese government.

What was sparked by opposition to an extradition bill that would allow Hong Kongers to

face trial in the mainland has now turned into a six-month-long pro-democracy movement.

So how significant are these protests, and have they got any closer to their goal? I'm joined by

Professor Kerry Brown, China expert at King's College London, and Isabella Stgham, journalist for courts in Hong Kong to discuss.

Izzy, in all your years reporting from Hong Kong, have you ever seen the city like this?

No, of course not. And the last time that people always talk about that it was anything like this was 1967 during the riots.

And obviously that was a very long time ago. And what's

happening now is, I suppose, years or maybe decades of frustrations of all kinds bubbling up

since. And, you know, I know that people always talk about the violence, but there's also,

you know, just the level of politicization and activism and just conscientiousness, I guess, bubbling up everywhere.

That's also the other sort of thing that you don't see, but is the other thing that's something

I've never seen in this city before.

Kerry, obviously China is no stranger to pro-democracy protests.

The May 4th protests in the early 20th century and the Tiamen protests in 1989 are two examples that come to mind.

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