discovered. 6 month. documentary. this is t w news asia coming up this sucker off prize goes to meet her activist. with china condemned to life in prison he spoke out against beijing's persecution of his people. and local elections in hong kong becomes the new battleground for the pro and anti beijing camp will meet 2 candidates facing off across the political divide . district council actions ready attracts huge amounts of attention particularly outside hong kong but this year that is radically different.

i'm melissa chan welcome to news asia thank you for joining us the european parliament has awarded its prestigious human rights award the soccer prize to iran toady he is the professor and member of the ethnic muslim minority called weekers who mostly live in china beijing has gone after this group putting an estimated 1000000 of them according to the u.n. in detention camps yes you heard that right detention camps it's the largest internment of people since world war 2 toady is serving a life sentence he probably doesn't even know he's won this award china says he's a separatist but what he said and what he tried to do was simply to convey the feelings weekers had about how china was running the territory where most of them live. maybe they will in the time when we have no representative no newspaper of

our own eyes as i thought what can ordinary people do when they encounter in justice o'shanter from some of them will fight resist. even though why a person violence i believe there will be more and more violent resistance by ordinary people if government policies don't change. peter erwin is the spokesperson for the world leader congress peter tell us a little more about 20. so. is an economics professor we're economics professor who taught it means university in beijing i think there's one thing you could say about him is he is a voice of moderation reconciliation that was reflected in the european parliament decision today he advocated fairly openly for dialogue between iran and the girders he said because of a cycle of your business 6 primarily as a means of encouraging conversation between these groups to overcome in some ways the states of the florida division of their id who if in some of the conversations

challenges of one of the foundational missives that enforced by the chinese communist party for that work he was arrested in just in 14. he was denied access to a lawyer for 6 months after his attention you know trial lasted 2 days i think gives you a sense of china's legal system his lawyers with evidence for the from the prosecutor all requests for witnesses were refused by the court subsequently some of them to life in prison for inciting separatism and in the media that we need to understand is that he never of course culver separatism he was the exact opposite he was a voice of moderation reconciliation now here i remember i spoke to back in 2010 when i was based in beijing and he also struck me as a voice of moderation in many ways he's sort of like a model minority a what china says they want to see and yet even he could not escape the clutches of a getting in you know stuck in the system so what kind of leader model minority do

the chinese want to see if even iran is in prison for life. yeah i think something's going as case of bin become a bit more clear in the subsequent years after his detention and sentencing i think what they want to see what a model minority as uncomfortable as i am using that kind of language as someone who is essentially just chinese who is up to the characteristics of the communist party of the ford speaking chinese basically deconstruct you know who greg jennett is that sort of goes against what the chinese want for him the criticism also is better i think people criticize the policies that he saw as kind of productive in such a way that it was constructed to clear it of life for the government and actually solve these problems and what is then is the indicates is that i think the chinese government is not interested in actually solving these problems in the 4 or 5 years afterwards they can't open up with a couple 1000000 people gives us clarity in terms of what actually they don't want to do and that's to undermine the big identity itself and not solve the deeper

problems tell us what you know about the latest concerning these camps or at the moment estimates put the number of detention detainees in the camps or 212000000 perhaps upwards of 3000000 people these people are still arbitrarily detaining camps essentially what the government calls occasional training centers they're more like in term of cancer to indoctrinate their your population and has actually occurred there also detained as well. and then of course beyond the cancer itself is quite extensive security and surveillance system in the region so course people perhaps need to give the release from the cast but there's such a climate of fear at the moment in the region that includes the free to speak at all is that sort of a more general policy to undermine an essential element of the expression there of peter or when thank you. finally hong kong's government has withdrawn the unpopular extradition bill that 1st kicked off protests months ago it would have allowed people to be transferred to mainland china to face

a separate far more unreliable court system and now it looks as though kerry land the territory's chief executive might step down before her term ends so protesters in hong kong should be happy right well if there were campaigning and local elections which are exactly one month away are any indication they've still got a lot to say it's essentially become a single issue vote are you for or against beijing here's the charge charlie kills report. $82.00 and michael long or on opposing sides of the political spectrum but both are already feeling the heat in one of the most divisive district council elections in memory. pro stablish one councilor michael wang is running for a 3rd term this was previously a safe seat but months of pro-democracy protests have turned this election on its head. some i'm feeling really frustrated. no matter how

much we do for the local community people don't care. only care now about your stance on the protests and whether you're for or against the protesters demands. that. it's not just reelection at stake michael wang's among a number of pro stablish lawmakers whose offices have been vandalized in recent weeks he's now boarded up his doors concerned mounting public anger has turned him into a target. nor make a chew also feeds more violence several pro-democracy candidates have been physically attacked a handful of also face challenges from the authorities every chew among them he was threatened with disqualification over his stance on self-determination beijing is very. anxious 1st. coming. i would say even more important. election next year. both sides know this

election could have far reaching implications district council is formed part of the committee that will select the next chief executive in 2022 which means they will have some limited say in the next leader of hong kong district council elections rarely attract huge amounts of attention particularly outside hong kong but this year that is radically different everyone watching the results of this election very closely with some even wondering whether the day's will even be allowed to go ahead. i given the current unrest some pretty beijing politicians are calling for the vote to be suspended but others fear that could set a dangerous precedent and further fuel public anger if we do not have this. district. that that means we will lose a crucial peaceful way for people to avoid all of this form

a movement and we'll possibly food. on the streets i this vote has become a referendum on a movement and with a month before voters go to the polls candidates face an uncertain few weeks ahead with weekly protests and anxious authorities capable of shaking up the political climate in an instant. we have wilson young from hong kong's progressive lawyers group i should add there are pro-democracy organization muslim i looked at the last poll numbers from one of the more trusted news outlets in hong kong known for their fact based coverage just 6 percent of people in support of probating candidates tell us more. yeah i think that particular poll shows the number of people who self identify themselves as in the probation camp so it's not necessarily the same number of people who would actually go and vote for

the same count but despite that there's no doubt that the support for the probe aging pro-government side of the political spectrum is falling we see the trust in the hong kong government collapsing trust in the police collapsing and of course that then feeds in to the probe aging side of the political aloof political spectrum they benefit when the government is doing well they benefit from funds from popularity but when the government is doing appallingly then they suffer the consequential damage and that's probably going to be seen in the november district council elections why do you think there's still appears to be so much support for the protest movement even when some of the activists have been frankly than de lys ing and throwing molotov cocktails as seen in some recent polls there are concerns about protesters use of vandalism and some violence but the number of people who

are concerned about police brutality and police excessive force is way higher so there's a one recent poll which said 40 percent of people thought protesters were using too much violence but compared to the 70 percent or above thought that the police were using excessive violence and force so there's a lot of concern about that and obviously there's a disparity in the sense that protesters who are using illegal force will be arrested tried and dealt with in according to the law but the concern about the police side of the equation is that the police seem to be getting away with whatever they want to do. the extradition bill which originally kicked off protests months ago has now been withdrawn there are rumors leader kerry lamb will step down so are protesters are you satisfied. it's probably too little too late but this this time if the bill had withdrawn at the beginning of the protests then maybe it would have satiated some people but by this time about 4 and

a half months in isabel a lot more than the extradition bill now it's about police brutality overall it's about unaccountable gov people are realizing that what they really need is structural reform. within their own thank you. thank you. that's our show for today you can find more on our web site d w dot com ford slash asia and on facebook and twitter as well please let us know what you think about what we cover and what you would like to see. leave you with pictures what pictures of this year sakharov prize recipient ellen tony thank you for watching see you next time.

i'm secure in the fire more. than in the end this is a me you're not a lot of the year and more rules and you. are you familiar with this. with the smugglers with lions and. what's your story. 'd with numbers and women especially in victims of violence in. part and send us your

story your training or with understand this new culture. another visitor another you want to become a citizen. in for migrants your platform for reliable information. the end of an era as mario draghi hands the helm of the european central bank to christine lagarde he is held as the savior of the euro by some but many are saying he's leaving behind a weak currency that won't survive the next crisis. our way or not to our way germany's governmental regulator is under fire for green lighting the chinese company's products for the country's 5 g. infrastructure. stuck in the middle served to become citizens.

migrants your platform for reliable information. the end of an era as mario draghi hands the helm of the european central bank to christine lagarde is held as the savior of the euro buys some many saying he's leaving behind a weak currency that won't survive the next crisis. our way or not to our way germany's governmental regulator is under fire for green lighting the chinese company's products for the country's 5 g. infrastructure. stuck in the middle serbia vows to boost economic ties with russia while it also strives to become part of the e.u. . this is business. as in the berlin wall come

and we start in europe after 8 years at the helm of the e.c.b. mario druggy is final policy meeting is famous 2012 statement whatever it takes to preserve the euro at the height of the concert zones financial crisis will go down in history as successes behind a divided governing council. last month a 3rd of its members a post his move to restart quantity of easy printing money to buy bonds from governments and companies as a way of stabilizing the euro zone. in his final press conference that ended just minutes ago he was asked by a reporter.