Will China crack down on Hong Kong?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2019
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last month Hong Kong witnessed its largest ever protests, the most violent in decades. A proposed law to allow extradition of criminals to mainland China caused uproar. This bill exposed the cracks in relations between Hong Kong and the Beijing government. The current ‘one country, two systems’ arrangement gives the region some autonomy from Beijing. Pro-democracy protesters worry that this is being eroded as the Communist party is trying to bring it further under its influence. Complicating matters is Hong Kong’s significant but shrinking economic importance to China.
With this year being the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen square massacre the international community is nervously watching to see how modern China will respond to the civil disobedience on such a large scale.
(Protesters storm the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on June 12, 2019. Photo Credit: Anthony Wallace/Getty images.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:03.3 | I'm Ruth Alexander. |
| 0:04.9 | Each week one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. It's the 1st of July 2019, late at night, and hundreds of |
| 0:16.8 | July 2019, late at night, and hundreds of masked protesters have smashed their way into Hong Kong's Parliament |
| 0:24.4 | building. They used pieces of scaffolding, trolleys, anything they could get their |
| 0:29.4 | hands on. They stormed through the empty corridors and into the legislative council, where Hong Kong's |
| 0:36.3 | lawmakers do their work. |
| 0:39.0 | Leaders' portraits were torn from the wall, replaced by anti-government graffiti and a British colonial era flag. |
| 0:47.8 | This was a furious challenge to China's rule. |
| 0:51.9 | Not one, surely, China's rule. Not one surely China's authoritarian government could ignore. |
| 0:55.7 | That's why while Beijing's eyes were on Hong Kong, our eyes were on Beijing. |
| 1:01.6 | We want to know, will China crack down on Hong Kong? Part 1, 1 country, 2 systems. Our first expert witness, Helia Chung, took part in the ceremony where the British handed |
| 1:32.3 | over Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997. |
| 1:38.0 | This is her and a choir of children singing as they witnessed history being made, |
| 1:43.6 | somewhat underwhelmed by the experience. As kids we were mostly not |
| 1:47.2 | impressed with the fact the sandwiches they offered us |
| 1:49.6 | either for breakfast or lunch were really disgusting. I think there was some |
| 1:53.3 | slightly dry begets with a bit of butter and cucumbers in it. |
| 1:57.0 | Ladies and gentlemen, |
| 1:59.0 | his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. |
| 2:11.0 | I've been asked by Her Majesty of the Queen to read the following message. Five hours from now, the Union flag will be lowered, |
| 2:16.3 | and the flag of China will fly over Hong Kong. |
... |
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