While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has had their crosshairs on Hong Kong for years, the global chaos of 2020 has been the perfect opportunity for them to make their most aggressive moves on the formerly semi-independent island city. The aftermath of George Floyd’s death, the US presidential circus, the ongoing navigation of the Wuhan Coronavirus, the fast-approaching Brexit deadline, and the decapitation of Samuel Paty in France, are just some of the events that have captured people’s attention and imagination in the West. The West’s focus on the issues closest to home has facilitated the Chinese Communist Party’s not-so-subtle totalitarian, imperialist agenda.

This episode aims to provide a situational assessment for not only what has been going on in Hong Kong recently, but why those of us lucky enough to live in Western Open Societies should be deeply concerned about events happening over there.

In what may be the most important episode thus far, James Valaitis and Ciaran O’Regan are joined by Alan Flanagan. Alan is a doctoral candidate and science educator with a keen interest in international politics. Not only did he work as a lawyer himself for years, but he lived in Hong Kong and was there the historic night that the final British ship sailed off in 1997.

Alan Flanagan:
Website – www.alineanutrition.com
Instagram - @thenutritional_advocate

James Valaitis:
Website - infinityjames.com
Twitter - @infinityjames

Ciaran O’ Regan:
Website - www.quarrelsomelife.com
Instagram - @CTQuarrelsome
Twitter - @CTQuarrelsome

We discuss many relevant topics, including:

• A brief overview of what makes Hong Kong different from mainland China.
  
• The “forced labour”, “coercive birth control of women”, forced organ harvesting, and “genocide” of the Uighur Muslims in the North-Western province of Xinjiang.
  
• The timeline of the protests in Hong Kong and the escalation that ensued.
  
• The “Orwellian” nature to the absurd new laws brought in by the CCP that even led to the arrest of an 11-year old girl for holding an old Hong Kong flag.
  
• The terrifying difference between the Chinese and Western constitutions.
  
• The influence of China’s free speech restrictions on the severity of the Wuhan Coronavirus spread. 
  
• Where is the political appetite to hold the CCP accountable for their actions at home and abroad?
  
• China’s economic imperialism in Africa* and parasitic nature of their international relations (* = James and Ciaran discuss this in episode #4 and #5 linked below). 
  
• The West’s naïve presumption that economic freedom in China would bring about democracy.
  
• The insidious danger to us all of the rising power of what Alan calls (01:29:56), “an oppressive, autocratic, murderous, xenophobic regime with complete disdain for the rest of the world” in China. 
  
  

REFERENCED LINKS:
- The 1962 paper published in Asian Survey detailing refugees from the mainland trying to escape the CCP rule: online.ucpress.edu/as/articl…
- The 1999 article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) by Professor Vaclav Smil about the 30-40million death toll of the Maoist “Great Leap Forward” famine: vaclavsmil.com/wp-conten…
- September 2020 Guardian article about slave labour of the Uighur Muslims: www.theguardian.com/global-de…
- June 2020 BBC article about the forced sterilization and birth control of Uighur Muslims: www.bbc.com/news/worl…
- The 2019 China Tribunal summary judgement about forced organ harvesting: chinatribunal.com/final-jud…
- Lord Chris Patten—the last governor of Hong Kong—discussing Rule of Law vs Rule by Law: www.youtube.com/watch
- Our previous episode (#9) about the Uighur genocide situation in China: www.youtube.com/watch
- Our previous two episodes (#4 and #5) about China’s internal and global agenda:
#4: www.youtube.com/watch
#5: www.youtube.com/watch
- The preamble to the Chinese constitution from which that Alan read: www.npc.gov.cn/zgrdw/eng…
- Quillette article from July 2020 by Owen Lewis suggesting that we should be crying out in the West to take immigrants from Hong Kong to inject genuine lovers of freedom into our countries: quillette.com/2020/07/0…