lou: joining us now, "wall street journal" editorial board member, former asia opinion editor, mary kisselael oslen, director of japan studies, good to have you with us. >> thank you. lou: let me begin if i may, mary, we are watching the streets of hong kong. today is the day, the deadline that the demonstrators have sent for, i mean, it's striking for the government of china to comply with their demands. >> you have to understand, hong kong is the freest place in china today. they enjoy freedom of association, freedom of religion. freedom of assembly. and they were promised that they would have full democracy by 2017. beijing said -- lou: as a part of the handover in 1997. >> and beijing said in august, we're not going to give you that. back in 03 they tried to pass a big anti-subversion law, hong kongers came into the streets to pass the national law. lou: look at that. did you think you would ever see this? >> yes, i did, yes, i did. there are two forces here. have you hong kong people accustomed to freedoms, and you have the one party state in china that's never going grant it to them.