The Rebel is in Hong Kong to document the democratic uprising — while Communist China bullies democracy activists in Canada
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Summary
The Rebel lands in Hong Kong to document the democratic uprising, while communist China bullies democracy activists right here in Canada. Trump and Xi have a dinner with Tim Cook, and it's a doosey dinner. Trump talks about trade with China, and the Chinese President talks about Tiananmen Square.
Transcript
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Hi, Rebels. Today is a show you're really going to want to get the video version of.
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Because we sent Avi Amini to Hong Kong to stand amongst the democracy protesters,
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Some great interviews, you'll be able to hear them, but my gosh, I want you to see them too.
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And to do that, you've got to become a premium subscriber.
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So you get the video version, go to the rebel.media slash shows and sign up.
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You get a discount if you use the coupon code podcast.
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You get my shows, the video version, Sheila Gunn-Reed, David Menzies,
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and the satisfaction of knowing that you're helping to pay for our independent journalism.
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All right, that's it for me. Here's today's show.
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Tonight, the rebel lands in Hong Kong to document the democratic uprising,
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while communist China bullies democracy activists right here in Canada.
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It's August 19th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publisher,
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Between 700,000 and 1.7 million democracy activists took to the street in Hong Kong yesterday,
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Either way, it was a massive show of force against the Communist Party in Beijing.
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I call it a show of force, but of course, they are unarmed, which is a problem.
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They were also unarmed that day in Tiananmen Square, too.
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And after a brief standoff, the communists just drove their tanks over everybody.
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As you know, China is mustering thousands of troops just across the boundary from Hong Kong again.
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It's not even a border. It's just a demarcation, really a street.
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There are thousands of troops doing exercises just a few miles away.
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And China is obviously threatening Hong Kong people.
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No, I think it would be very hard to deal if they do violence.
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I mean, if it's another Tiananmen Square, I think it's a very hard thing to do if there's violence.
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And, you know, I'm president, but that's a little beyond me,
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because I think there'd be tremendous political sentiment not to do something.
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So I hope, because I think we're going to end up doing a very good deal.
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He says, if China were to do that, well, even he doesn't have the power to do a deal.
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If China massacred Hong Kong people, there'd be no political way for Trump to give China a trade deal at all.
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He sees factories abandoning China to leave to go to work in jurisdictions that aren't tariffed by America.
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Build stuff elsewhere, especially build it in America, get into the greatest market in the world tariff-free.
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Trump had dinner the other day with Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple.
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And you see that? He says they'll be spending vast sums of money in the U.S.
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Great. It's pretty clear what he's talking about, moving those computer and cell phone factories from China back to America.
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That should terrify President Xi more than anything else.
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He's even saying the word Tiananmen Square, which everyone's thinking.
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He's the clearest speaker in the world about many subjects, including China's threat.
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Here he is just the other day, just plain old saying he's not interested in doing any business with Huawei,
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the Chinese telecom company that is in bed with the Chinese military and therefore poses a security risk to America and Canada, too.
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Huawei is a company we may not do business with at all.
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And it was sort of reported, I think, the opposite today.
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I was surprised that we are open to doing business.
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We're actually open not to doing business with them.
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Now, they have little sections of Huawei, like furniture and other things that we could do.
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But when you cut out sections, it gets very complicated.
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So at this moment, it looks much more like we're not going to do business.
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I don't want to do business at all because it is a national security threat.
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And I really believe that the media has covered a little bit differently than that.
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So we're looking really not to do business with Huawei.
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And we're actually talking about not doing any business because, again, the rest of it is not national security.
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But it's very difficult to determine what's coming in, what's not coming in.
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So we'll be making a decision over that in the not-too-distant future.
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But it's a little bit the opposite of what seemed to be reported this morning.
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This guy knows how to negotiate if he didn't realize what he was doing there.
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Anyways, back to the real threat of violence from China.
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I think that China believes Tiananmen Square was a great victory.
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You haven't seen democracy protests in China since, have you?
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And it's not like any country in the world has sanctions against China.
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That fool Justin Trudeau is actually still investing Canadian money in China's infrastructure bank.
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He'll build pipelines with China with Canadian money, but not in Canada.
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Back in Tiananmen Square, the protesters in Beijing had a mini Statue of Liberty.
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They knew that America was the great symbol of freedom and still is.
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The rebel sent our friend, the Australian reporter Avi Amini, to Hong Kong on the weekend.
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Here's an interview he had with Hong Kong protesters who were flying American flags.
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And so if you could send a message to Donald Trump, what would it be?
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Mr. Trump, we are very humble and powerless people in Hong Kong.
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And we know that when the Americans fight for their independence, they need to pay a lot, like for blood and life.
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And in any moment, if you can help us, like the American people and President Trump, please help us.
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And I would like to have this chance to thank President Trump that speaks things in Hong Kong for us.
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Especially a few days ago, he spoke with a lot of powerful people in different countries about Hong Kong situation.
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And we appreciate that and thank you for him to help us speak out the hate situation in Hong Kong.
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And something we want to say to the American common people is that be careful of the Chinese business activity.
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Because actually, this will slowly corrupt your whole country.
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The workers who are in the crew that joined the protests, China requests Cafe Pacific to give out a list of their crews that joined the protests.
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So we think that he is forced to resign his position.
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Why the hell the companies can remove the CEO from us?
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And a few days ago, a few days ago, something happened in the residential area in Hong Kong, a city called, an area called Sha Tin.
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In the residential area, the government started to build the facial recognition system, which is the first step of their social credit system.
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They are trying to make Hong Kong like Xinjiang right now.
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I mean, if we fail this time, Hong Kong will be the second Xinjiang.
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And all of us, they already arrested 700 people.
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I'm sure they will end up in Xinjiang concentration camp.
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In my mind, the communists, they are right now, they are actually like Nazi.
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I mean, I mean, this is what I want to say to the American people and Trump and also to the rest of the world.
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This is our duty to fight against something like, something like Nazi.
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If we don't fight here now, we will lose forever.
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It's not, if we lose in this battle, Hong Kong is not even an international city.
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Because Americans are very, how to say it, they care for the freedom and democracy.
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I mean, it's actually practically, it's really practically not their business.
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But it's like we are raising conscience, consents.
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It's like if you want to save us, if you want to safeguard this world, then support us.
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120,000 people have watched that video on our special page, HongKongReports.com, in a day.
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The masks in Canada, the United States, when you wear a mask, it's to hide you from when you commit a crime to make you unidentifiable.
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The Chinese communists, with their surveillance state, will use facial recognition software to identify you.
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So they're hiding from the commies with the face masks.
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She was talking about Cathay Pacific and how the Chinese businesses infiltrate.
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Cathay Pacific, of course, is one of the world's leading airlines based in Hong Kong.
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But some staff in Cathay Pacific attended the protests, of course.
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The Beijing government demanded that Cathay Pacific identify and fire its staff.
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A warning about letting Chinese infiltration into our business culture.
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And I don't think many Canadians know what Xinjiang is.
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It's the province in the west of China that is the Muslim province.
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It's also called East Turkmenistan, if I'm not mistaken.
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I haven't seen them myself, but I've seen them described as re-education camps trying to
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And it's very heavy-handed, and it's been criticized by some media.
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But of course, I haven't heard any politicians speak out against it.
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She said they're trying to use the same surveillance state social credit system in Hong Kong that
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Total surveillance state all the time, a panopticon, scanning everyone's face all the time, adding
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So if you are seen at a protest, you can't have certain privileges.
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You can't book a train ticket or a plane ticket.
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They call it social credit, which is a very strange euphemism.
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But so far, 2.5 million Chinese people have been blacklisted by this total surveillance state
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And she's worried about that coming to Hong Kong.
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Well, Avi was doing a really great job, don't you think?
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I want to show you so many of his videos, I can't show you them all.
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She was the first woman elected to the Hong Kong legislature.
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She's a democracy activist, as the party name suggests.
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I'd like to show you the full interview with her.
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Now, you'll notice that our camera fogs up a bit.
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It was 30 degrees Celsius and 90 percent humidity there.
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Well, initially, it was about an extradition bill, which would allow the government to send
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people from Hong Kong to mainland China for trial.
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And of course, although we are not a democracy in Hong Kong, but we have the rule of law,
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But in mainland China, it's complete lawlessness.
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So people are very frightened and could not understand why the government of Carrie Lam would
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And particularly ever since 1997, when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China, they have been
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negotiating with the mainland for a deal and could not get anywhere.
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And suddenly out of the blue, because of a Taiwan homicide case, Carrie Lam came out to
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And then in the end, because so many people marched and many foreign governments, including
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So she came out and said, OK, OK, we stopped the bill.
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Why don't you just use a proper language saying the bill has been completely withdrawn?
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And then in the meantime, there were many demonstrations.
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Many were peaceful, attracting one to two million people.
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But some, the young people, they had confrontation with the police.
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And so far, they have arrested over 700 people already.
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So the people say, well, there should be an independent inquiry, looking into the whole saga.
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And why did the police behave in such a brutal way?
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And of course, some of the protesters also attacked the police.
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So that's why today, the Civil Human Rights Front, which organized the big march for one million and two million,
00:15:11.560
But the capacity of the park is only about 100,000.
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And there may be, you know, a million or more people joining.
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So the organizers said, OK, no violence, no disorder.
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Once it's full, then we'll get ushers to take you out of the park.
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You go to the nearby station to take the train.
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And if there's so many people, then the streets next to the park will be full.
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Then the government would know that there are many people who want to join this peaceful rally.
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But then some people say, no, we will come fully armed.
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Well, we did say last night some of the escalating on the streets.
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And a lot of the people wearing masks tell us that they wear it because the police are very heavy handed
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I understand, but the organizers say this is a peaceful thing.
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They say that if you're peaceful, if the park is full, then you walk out.
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But some say, oh, no, you don't trust the police.
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If they want to protect themselves, that's fine.
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But I hope people will not come fully covered up and all that, waiting for trouble.
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Do you feel we see China at the moment is building a military might on the border?
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Are you worried that this is going to escalate?
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I have to correct all these journalists time and time again.
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And in fact, they allow the foreign press to go in and film them, which is totally unheard of.
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Well, they want, A, they want to show you so that you can show the picture, see, oh, the military might.
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But then they also have people, the police here, gave an off-the-record briefing to the foreign press two or three days ago, saying, no need.
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We don't need any help from across the boundary.
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So I think the police, they are very aware of the bad image they are getting internationally.
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So they want to tell the press, no, we're not going to invite them to come in.
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But on the other hand, there are some people over there who want to scare the Hong Kong people.
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So I think, by and large, the people don't expect them to march across the boundary.
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In fact, the People's Liberation Army have been stationed in Hong Kong ever since 1997.
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I think they just want to tell people to calm down, don't fight with the police.
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But the people say, I don't want to fight with the police.
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We just want the government to accede to our demands, which are very reasonable.
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We are not fighting for independence or self-determination.
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Maybe the Canadians, those in Quebec, may support it.
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And in the past 24, 48 hours, the Canadian Prime Minister has spoken out,
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the British, the German, the Australian, the European Union.
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And today, just an hour ago, the European Union issued another statement.
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And then they issued a joint statement with the Canadian government.
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So you can see the international community is very alarmed.
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And they're calling on all parties to exercise restraint and to find a political solution.
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Because at the end of the day, my dear, Hong Kong is important to China.
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In spite of the fact they say, oh, China is so rich.
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We are just a tiny percentage of their GDP, be that as it may.
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We are an important international financial center.
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So I wouldn't think anyone in Beijing, in his right mind, would want to come in and smash
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They say, the Chinese say they're not going to repeat that.
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Last time they stopped the bill, not because a million people marched.
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They stopped the bill because there were 67 statements issued by foreign governments.
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So I call on the international community, particularly the Canadian government, because I don't know whether you know, there are 300,000 Canadian citizens living and working in this city.
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So Canada has a real interest here to make sure that peace is restored, that the government can enter into negotiation with the opposition and settle this amicably.
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Just Avi, I can't talk to him because of time zones and connections, but it's like we're talking to him.
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It's a young woman explaining the five demands of the protesters.
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She also adds in one of her own that seemed to be a personal beef.
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She doesn't like mainland Chinese coming into her neighborhood and shopping.
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I don't think that's why a million and a half Chinese were protesting.
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It's like someone who says, oh, there's 11 commandments.
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You have to give me more allowance or something.
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And I'm impressed with how young so many of these protesters are.
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So the first thing is we want the extradition law to be completely withdrawn.
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So Carrie Lam has not been promising to withdraw it.
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So we really want the government to reply to that.
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Secondly, we want to set up an independent inquiry to the police
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because they have been very brutal to the protesters.
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So we want an independent investigation and then have the corresponding outcome
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that is suitable in response to the police brutality.
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And the third thing is we want the release of all the protesters that have been arrested.
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Fourthly, we want universal suffrage to be implemented, which is promised by the basic law.
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So our Hong Kong people want to choose our own chief executive.
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The fifth one is that we want the classification of riot to be withdrawn as well
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because we are not rioters and a lot of the protests are peaceful,
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At the moment, what is rioters, what's it defined as?
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Basically, even for the 12th of June protest, the government has defined it as a riot.
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We didn't do any indiscriminate damage or attack to civilians like the police or the gangs did.
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So we are simply being very peaceful, sitting in or like rallying for our five demands to be answered.
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I admit I sort of love the slight British accent laid over the Chinese accent.
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How can you not sympathize with people like that?
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In Canada, there is support for them, but also not.
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Over the weekend, Canada's hapless Chrystia Freeland put out a statement on the protest,
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The only person or people she condemned, she insulted, she called them unacceptable, were the protesters.
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So Canada, as usual, bent the knee to Beijing, and still Beijing was tearing a strip off Canada for even Freeland's meek press release.
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When you appease a tyrant, it's never enough because the tyrant detects something about you.
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So they can always ask for more, always demand more, always compromise more, and they always do.
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You'll notice that China treats Trudeau and Freeland with far more personal abuse than they'd ever treated Stephen Harper, who was very tough on them.
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And China positively lavishes praise on Donald Trump because he will not be bullied.
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But remember how they treated him when he actually visited China?
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Our relationship with you and China is a very important one to me and to all of the people of our country.
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The United States, working with China and other regional partners, has an incredible opportunity to advance the cause of peace, security, and prosperity all across the world.
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A great responsibility has been placed on our shoulders, President, and I hope we can rise to the occasion and help our countries and our citizens reach their highest destinies and their fullest potentials.
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In the coming months and years, I look forward to building an even stronger relationship between our two countries and even closer friendships and relationships between the people of our countries.
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Pretty friendly talk there, but not conceding anything, actually.
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That's how dictators react to those with a backbone.
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Abuse for pathetic losers like Trudeau and Freeland who, well, who talk like this.
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We're quite proud the Prime Minister has been given a fond nickname in China.
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He is called Pudou, which I believe means potato.
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And he's, I can't say the Chinese word, little potato, because his father, Pierre Elliott, Pudou, was senior potato.
00:26:17.540
You know, I mean, it's hard to see that kind of pathetic folly and not want to just, I can understand why China kicks us like we're a lame dog.
00:26:38.020
Because how can you not, I mean, I would never kick a dog and I don't like it, but that's so pathetic.
00:26:44.880
They must be disgusted with us over there in Beijing.
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How could they possibly treat us with respect if we have no self-respect?
00:27:03.060
I mentioned that there are pro-democracy activists here in Canada.
00:27:07.100
But the troubling thing is there's a number of Chinese immigrants to Canada who don't really like freedom or democracy at all.
00:27:17.360
They didn't come to Canada with the waves that came in the lead up to 1997 from Hong Kong.
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They're not either dissidents or democratic refugees.
00:27:32.640
There was a meeting in Vancouver at a church of pro-democracy Chinese, our kind of people.
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Masses of government, communist, Beijing-sympathetic Chinese surrounding the church in a hostile way.
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Canadian police had to go, secure the church, and let the democracy protesters out here in Canada.
00:28:00.340
There's flashy Ferraris and Porsches flying communist China's flag, honking their horns in support of China's crackdown against the Hong Kong Democrats.
00:28:13.000
But, of course, those are the spoiled, rotten kids of Chinese oligarchs laundering their ill-gotten gains here in Toronto.
00:28:21.180
20-something kids driving half-million-dollar cars.
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The perfect symbol of the Chinese oligarchs in Beijing.
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That of the Hong Kong democracy activists we've shown you so much of today.
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We're going to keep covering this story because we love freedom.
00:28:40.240
We don't want Canadian or American soldiers going to war over there.
00:28:44.940
And all we want, I think, is what Trump is doing.
00:28:48.800
And all he's doing is speaking truth to power, pushing back at China in the way that hurts them most, by showing public sympathy and encouragement to the protesters.
00:28:59.220
And by calling out China's unfair trade practices in a way that bites.
00:29:03.340
I don't think that some of the protesters we spoke to, we talked to one gentleman who wanted the British to come back and rule the UK again.
00:29:13.120
Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen, which is too bad.
00:29:16.960
But I think Donald Trump just might make the bullies of Beijing themselves back down.
00:29:25.960
I think he'll help save Hong Kong and keep it free if it can be done.
00:29:31.500
I think he's going to make America richer in the bargain.
00:29:41.940
You can see all of his videos at HongKongReports.com.
00:29:46.460
We spent $4,000 or $5,000 getting him and his cameraman there.
00:29:49.960
If you think it was worth it, and I sure do, you can help chip in right there at HongKongReports.com.
00:29:55.540
I'm pretty proud of his work, and I hope you are too.
00:30:15.880
On my monologue Friday about Donald Trump showing support for the Hong Kong protest, Keith writes,
00:30:20.940
the Chinese are amassing a very large force of troops along the Hong Kong and Chinese border.
00:30:24.620
The whole situation could very easily turn into one hell of a big duck shoot.
00:30:28.540
Tempers fare very quickly, and life is cheap in the Orient.
00:30:33.540
Trust me, I lived there as a limey soldier for nearly five decades.
00:30:39.580
I mean, Hong Kong is an amazing city culturally, economically, politically, historically.
00:30:45.080
I wonder if China thinks that its specialness, its wealth, its world-classness is now more
00:30:56.440
I mean, the rest of China is rich, not in the same way, but in sort of the world's factory
00:31:02.320
I think that President Xi would not hesitate to do a Tiananmen Square there if he thought
00:31:08.360
But as Donald Trump said, you do that, and no deal with the West is possible.
00:31:14.820
Other than, of course, some European Union countries who do a deal with anyone.
00:31:21.960
He knows what will get his opposition on the run.
00:31:24.460
I hope it's true that this communist dynasty will crumble from the outside in.
00:31:36.640
I think there was a historic bias against Chinese people.
00:31:42.220
I think some Western chauvinists thought there's no way that our Western liberal culture of freedom
00:31:54.640
I think it was just sort of a statement about the philosophy of Confucianism versus our individualistic
00:32:00.480
philosophy of rebellion and individual liberty in the West.
00:32:05.280
But I think, did you see those Hong Kong young people?
00:32:08.680
I think they actually understand freedom, and especially that young lady who was talking to Americans.
00:32:13.980
And I think they can articulate freedom better than your average college kid in Canada or the United States.
00:32:23.180
And I tell you, it's one thing to talk about freedom in the United States.
00:32:25.960
We've got the Second Amendment to back up the first.
00:32:27.800
It's one thing to talk about freedom in Canada when we're not in acute jeopardy.
00:32:32.240
But to stand with that courage on a street, knowing a few miles away there are tanks mustering?
00:32:40.680
And I scarce can think of an example around the world that matches it.
00:32:45.340
Frankly, as I said to our team here, I wish it was me in Hong Kong meeting these heroes,
00:32:49.400
not my friend Avi Amini, who's doing a great job.
00:32:51.800
On my interview with Manny Montenegrino, Barb writes,
00:32:56.280
Always a learning experience with Manny Montenegrino provides his input.
00:32:59.620
If the RCMP fail to investigate and charge Trudeau with obstruction of justice,
00:33:03.120
they send Canadians a definite signal that they, too, are part of the libretto corruption.
00:33:07.920
Well, yeah, now I see news that Jody Wilson-Raybould said the RCMP contacted her in the spring.
00:33:15.060
All right. Well, it's the summer and almost the fall now, and an election is upon us.
00:33:22.560
I can't understand why there's no investigation or charges, especially after Mario Dion's ethics report.
00:33:30.620
But perhaps Trudeau has succeeded in corrupting that institution as well.
00:33:37.320
On behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,
00:33:39.540
whether you're in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, or Hong Kong,