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good intermission tuckshop assured journalists discuss the comical me coming up on quadriga hong kong protesters want china to respect the rule of law and the city's semi autonomous that but will beijing give them the freedom they're demanding talking about that coming up on the point britain's. quadriga next on d w. how's. view of the world. where i come from and not only that glitters is gold it's

just like this chinese food doesn't matter where i am always reminds me of home after decades of living in germany chinese food is one of the things i miss the most but that taking a step back i see things i need to live differently now. many of you expressed as american nations that exist the other part of the war haven't been implemented in china the cats leave not the time of people wondering if they're going to take it but if you have the right to learn reading is this is the job just understand my how i see it and understood why i had nothing my job because i tried to do it exactly the hour a day my name is the name too and i was added up to. 2

a lord welcome to quadriga international talk show coming to you from berlin i'm brian thomas on our show today you've seen them for about 3 months now every weekend out on the streets of hong kong thousands of protesters calling for democracy and the rule of law one protests 1700000 people peacefully staking their claim on freedom police holding back this time with no tear gas no rubber bullets but will beijing give hong kong the freedom and autonomy it so desperately wants and why is the west been so reluctant to unequivocally back up the protesters and their calls for democracy. are taught for today china's power play punk. for trade talk about this i'm joined by from didn't use

asia desk he says china wanted to experiment with the rule of law and democracy in hong kong with one country 2 systems and now also has the make concessions. bodge is the senior expert on egypt for the bertelsmann foundation based here in berlin he says congress the campus center of a global competition of systems western democracies to show solidarity and resilience and the ability to learn. and cherry chan is from hong kong works for g w social media team in berlin she says china's propaganda war is only uniting the people of hong kong and they will not stop fighting on the streets until they get a real response from the government. thanks so much to all of you for being here today and to our viewers of course from around the world as well wow if we could start with you you know you say that it's all

a matter of of the people talking in in hong kong and of beijing experimenting with this city have they lost control of the laboratory the laboratory that is right hong kong right now for the chinese government and are events taking on a life of their own there one see it is out of control beijing never controls hong kong in the remaining but conscious of the public image in the international words the situation home call is likely to. hong kong china to be the part of that one country 2 systems to the part of the one of the 2 systems in the world with the demanding a democracy and rule for all this written into law and that's what the dimona beijing is not ready to give them the freedom ok to 2 countries to use 2 systems one country one of the systems is clearly totalitarian the one in beijing hong kong

has been frayed to this point a baronet you say that hong kong is on its way to becoming a police state. at least the police have played a role in the last couple of weeks that i think has surprised a lot of hong kong is because in hong kong there was a lot of trust in institutions and the police and the police violence that we've seen and that hasn't been independently. researched is something that has shocked hong kong hong kong most and is really at the heart of this conflict which for hunk owners and knows better than we all do is a conflict about what is city going to be like in the future is it going to be just any chinese city or is it going to remain. a different system ok let's point out for viewers that it's 2047 right that hong kong reverts to complete chinese rule so

there's this window of opportunity there a cherry as a hong konger how is this city different from the rest of china. in that race in hong kong. people from there we always say freedom at. almost the same standard as how the us and lo is seeing it we also know people from china with friends from mainland china and when we talk about this because we know that we have a friends a freedom for example we always have a relatively high freedom of speech freedom of media we can get access to a face for. the internet without any restrictions which is very different from the mainland china ok there's also the court system as well hong kong has been so successful because it has an independent courses and there is the rule of law that is also a main difference along with freedom of expression isn't it yeah exactly in hong kong we always trust such a system and we know that it's independent from and ministration we know that we

have always trust that the government would not interfere in 2 and a. law and each of the show decisions ok so it's a long way from where we are today to a police state that so many people fear how one of the problems that protesters have been pointing to is the extradition law that the citizens of hong kong if they are charged with a crime would disappear to mainland china basically what's behind these fears of being extradited to mainland china why is that so terrifying for hong kong people are the reason is pretty clear because home and city are good by law but the mainland china is not the case therefore as some accused in hong kong the if the. if they go to to mainland china their fear is not very transparency proceeds in the courts that's the main reason for the hope protest but now this bill is dead says

the c.e.o. of the country but it's just the beginning of the loan protests because the finally the months. democracy is the real meaning like we understand here in west. what do you think what are the chances that this real democracy is how put it as we know in the west can be protected by the current leader of the city of i'll go. i don't think promoting democracy is the job that kerry has been given by the beijing government the basic law said that potentially hong kong could have free elections it's not very definite is it so it's unclear you know but that is what hong kong people have been hoping for the longest time that at one point there will be full democracy and beijing has made it very clear in the last couple of years that that is not going to happen and it's carry strolled through to no

squash these protests some peeps more peeking says it could have but. it should have both because they know the basic law is that eventually and gradually it what happened well potentially so we believe that in the end it would happen and we're looking forward to this ok cerium you also pointed to earlier social media that's very much part of china's propaganda warfare aimed at not only the people inside all gone but the mainland chinese as well it shows that beijing really wants to get control of this process the protest process quickly as possible is there a fear in beijing in how this question would apply the use well that that the protests will will leave hong kong and move to other parts of the country that we could see protests elsewhere in china as a result of yeah. i think the propaganda war by china itself very office laid off a successful in hong kong and it's all very successful in the international media

as well because hong kong people have been very used to this kind of propaganda. statements and people mainly use it mainly see it as a joke more than believing what they are saying yes so and also hong kong people really trying to be they are really trying to get international attention and a lot of protests all guys in other countries as you said but could the social media propaganda. another propaganda lead to protests that will move to other parts of china or do you think that's that's a situation that's to be excluded that these protests are not transferable to the we gars for example the minority muslims oh i don't think they're going to move somewhere and chinese cities because it's not going to work because the home call is to a free city you may go to a street and demonstration but in china the simple ways we don't know exactly what happened happened really happened in mainland china we don't know what exactly

happened why it happens and the police have a very strong hand and they would make you disappear for long periods and that's very risky for all the parties but they're ok we're going to focus more now on the propaganda war being waged on numerous fronts by beijing those fronts include global social media platforms state run media from entertainment to films to internet news sites and of course to state run t.v. as well. this is how chinese state media are presenting the situation in hong kong as a city in chaos with mass protesters prepared for violence. only accuse of being bandits and terrorists. this is the chinese government's take on the temporary occupation of hong kong airport today we express our strongest condemnation of this new terrorist act and express our deepest condolences to the injured mainland compatriots and hong kong police. the newspapers are also full of

images of violence this propaganda seems to be plausible for some citizens who didn't i think that it's ok to take to the streets in protest in a normal way but you shouldn't destroy public order and carry out violent acts only terrorists do that kind of thing. state media have also been showing these images of troop exercises in on the border with hong kong. but will china really resort to arms to crush the resistance in hong kong. what do you think about chinese a propaganda aimed at hong kong and the rest of china how effective is that different is that we heard from sherry this offer effective in hong kong what about on mainland china to people by all of that. that's the big question i think the interesting thing and you pointed to that is that. in hong kong it doesn't work and

it doesn't work although there's been more than 20 years of strong propaganda strong propaganda in schools and it didn't work and i think this demonstration came as a surprise to beijing because beijing thought we have discovered it so the big question in mainland china is do people believe all the propaganda yes in a way they do it's what they're fed with but it doesn't mean that they happy with the system that they're happy with their own lives and that there's not a lot of undercurrents of dissatisfaction that could blow up nobody had a protest like in hong kong on their books and the big question for beijing is how is it conquering to control its own population ok. what do you think what it is china not getting right about hong kong why is the propaganda not succeeding there is it simply that hong kong people have access to western media is that

what's going on there there is no saying china's which is very good is like a metaphor for this reason because the asian chinese when intellectually white you from upstairs to downstairs when they're reading books always why home call i see in hong kong i regard hong kong's part of bristol there right from left to the right hand side it is always a snow and just think in beijing it's right into the body's response and how we read that's exactly that they know everything what a party in the states say it's too and they didn't have the 2nd sort of independent source because of censorship that's the reason and i don't sing in the chinese the states run maybe a is going to have the control they might have a conscious of the public opinion within the mainland china but what they want it's have an international opinion a china friendly international piano what they're trying to do not over the the facebook and twitter ok. what do you think of propaganda is not going to work what

are the options for beijing to get hong kong in line. to answer all that the month of hong kong people 1st of all this is i think in every mind of this and they know very well what they want and what they are fighting for and they're not going to stop until they get that the month and also there's one thing to point out about. public opinion is in china maybe chinese government thing that they could control the public opinion but the fact is that chinese people they are so afraid to speak out that it's never we are never able to get what they're really thinking because they cannot speak on social media they cannot speak on camera so maybe they're really thinking like hong kong people just that they can speak out maybe they want the same freedoms but we simply don't know that ok well the chinese communist party's track record on respecting human rights is of course dismal the occupation of tibet destruction of its culture the internment of over

a 1000000 muslims of course as well and the bloody suppression of the democracy movement at tienanmen square in 1989 now this was the central point of. efforts to crush the human rights movement 30 years ago and it was a savage reality when tanks literally rolled over young pressers protesters in the square heavily peaceful we all remember that in tiananmen square young men and women who had the audacity just like the courageous citizens of hong kong today to call for their voices to be heard to demand that their voices matter just as much as the highest functionary of the communist party and that all people must be equal before the law that will is what it was all about back then and is now and the question is those voice those void.