Hong Kong Protests: The Economist live Q&A

Read more from The Economist here:

00:30 Why is the situation in Hong Kong such an important story?
02:16 What is the dilemma China faces?
04:02 What is the possibility that the protesters lose spirit and decide to call it a day without major concessions?
05:08 Are the protesters rallying behind a leader?
05:52 How does the Hong Kong compare to other protests that you've covered over the years?
08:36 Will the UK intervene? Does Britain have a responsibility here?
09:19 Do you foresee America becoming more involved?
12:05- How might these protests affect Taiwan?

[lulgng]

We south koreans support hong kong. We also went through harsh dictatorships in 70s.

[easypeasy]

If I were a HK protester - your questions at 10:50, I'd ask the rioters not to hijack the movement with petrol bombs, to stop the vandalism, respect the rule of law, allow others to have their opinion and not to beat them up or intimidate them when they express their opinion. After all, they are pro-democracy, right? I.e., no foreign intervention please, and please take away the funding. And the slogans are really boring.

[edyejw]

The guest sounded like Colin Firth, though he still claimed those protesters were peaceful; even protesters themselves admitted they demonstrated too much violence.

[tonyskli]

Comparing the incident happened in the summer of 1989 in Beijing and in the summer of 2019 in Hong Kong, one big difference is that the former got quite wide sympathy across the whole China whilst the latter ( especially the law-breaking events) gets almost no support ( perhaps gets despise) from the 1.4 billion people in mainland China. If anyone says the opinion of the1.4 billion people are irrelevant to Hong Kong, Iam afraid, he/she is highlighting the most dangerous mentality of some of the law-breaking protesters.

[kunsthooligan_vegan]

Free elections for Hong Kong 🇭🇰! Full support from Germany 🇩🇪

[summerli]

This lever of interview is below The Economist, has anyone understand even a little bit more about China and HK?

[derekterry]

where are their weapons come from? The editor may have some deviation from conventional wisdoms about the demonstration.

[vsxvjft]

We Hong Kong people support Scottish independence

[truthseeker]

The HK protesters have been peaceful? Really?? The 2 largest demonstrations have been peaceful, that’s true. But the ones in between have been violent. These thuggish protesters destroyed the HK parliament. This guy should be more balanced in his comment regarding the protesters. With all due respect to Hong Kongers, Hong Kong IS unequivocally a part of mainland China. The UK, the USA & Australia governments have no business poking their noses in mainland China’s domestic issues.

[joselee]

Britain should worry about your own problems instead of meddling other country’s internal affairs. This so call expert is full of bias and not telling the truth. The protests are not longer protests but riots, they occupied HK airport as consequence HK airport completely shutdown for two days, and they attached innocent passengers and blocked the road to boarding gate .

[Helloworldv]

This guy has no insights in what’s going on in China and Hong Kong. Can you do some research before the interview.

[abubardewa]

I think the main problem is that people of Hong Kong think that they are somehow still British because of the 100 year rule. It does not work like that. China had to see HK growth over the past years while enduring great famines and they still hold on to their belief in one party system.
So far, China has let HK have its own system of government which might last only few years.
HK is the economic hub of the east and I don't think China will let the protest change the way it is. The only way China will agree with HK is if US and other foreign power gets involved which means worsening the foreign relation with China. So far, no foreign country is willing to take that risk.
In other words, democracy in HK seems to be too far fetched.

[albertng]

Informative video and nicely done. Thank you!

[grainist]

Interesting thing here is that most ppl here on youtube don't understand the difference between Central government and Local Government of China. Even both of them want stable, the reason and next steps are different.
Local gov for sure wish HK can be "special" as usual so they can still enjoy economical and financial benefits like tax free, low cost water and electricity, etc. Also they can sit still on their seats. That's why they quickly responded to protestors on 9/July, stoped the unwelcoming bill.
But the protestors are not stop when they see good. Now the election system they want is pointing to the center gov. The central gov is different, they want one China stable. If they see any possible situation affect stableness, they will stop it no matter if it will hurt the HK economy. Of course the scene of 30 years ago will not be once more, the central gov are smart, fool them once? ... What they already started is a quiet "letting go", check out the new policy towards Shenzhen and what happened to Shenzhen stock market today.
Maybe these young protestors will eventually get what they want now(a election system even the most democratic US doesn't have), but if things lead to that way, Hongkong will for sure lose their future, economically.

[vladimirivanov]

A very informed discussion. Pleasure to listen

[yiqiwang]

Calling British rule in Indian ethical practice is utterly delusional.

[frankieleung]

Read my letters to editor in Financial Times about Hong Kong.

[BilllB]

It doesn't make sense turning Hong Kong into just another Chinese City. Its Autonomy and place in China as the city is now will benefit China far better.

[dpakkkk]

Thanks for the video Economist. HK indeed is stuck in the biggest dilemma now, on the one hand it's quite clear what the protestors want, and at the other is China, which has the option to either tarnish it's relations with the world forever or accept defeat from its own people, who have turned hostile and may not ever step back.

[peadora]

Just so you know, we do not have a leader/ leadership in this movement. Even the loose coalition is not seen as a leader, the movement is truly decentralized and had been organized via social media and WhatsApp/telegram by individuals. Hong Kong people share the same goal and millions of us are trying different routes to reach there. We shall overcome.