And the role of American Leadership in the world. It is important to remember that what happens abroad and how people live elsewhere affects us here at home. When america turns a blind eye, we invite expressionism and extremism. We must Work Together to safeguard the democratic Border Guarding peace, prosperity and human achievement home abroad. At the bush institute, we are working diligently on these issues and today, our team is releasing a set of recommendations aimed at freedom, democracy and human rights and Foreign Policy. Thank you for contributing to this effort and may god bless you all. It is a little known fact that everywhere i go he does a video. We have a great panel, a really provocative title. I think we start off with the greater opposed opposed. And freedomtty bad house, something we measure every year in our freedom of the world report and for the last 13 years, every year, weve had more countries experiencing decline in so that political andts and Civil Liberties scores for next year not ready. O be announced cite a few data points per at number one, china is getting more repressive. Camps trying to tighten the screws. According tona is our scores, the worst violator worldernet freedom in the so that is one story and along with russia, they are not only on humano crackdown rights within their own countries, but they are reaching across the border and really both countries are holding out to liberalnative democracy. I think if you go around the globe, you see all sorts of problems. Whichchallenge is india really has a lot of problems cracking down on muslims and how they do laws that are raising questions about indian democracy. That is a global phenomenon. I think it is not a great picture. The one thing we have to remind yourselves is there is a basic human thirst for freedom and democracy, so we are inspired by what happened this year. And hong kong, people insisting on their rights. Two countries, sudan and ethiopia, which has a lot of trouble, Popular Protest Movement overthrew the long entrenched dictator and ethiopia, a political opening, a nobel prizewinning Prime Minister. You have to remind ourselves you have to have optimism and try to look at the glass halffull. It is pretty bad to answer the question. You are working around the world, what are your people seeing in terms of their efforts to promote democracy and better governments . How bad is it . I think it is very challenging right now. I am much more optimistic for some of the reasons michael laid out. Had the opportunity to travel to 13 countries and 2019 in africa, the middle east, the balkans, soviet union and asia and our folks that we worked with in these countries, candidates, what, running for office. They are also pretty optimistic. It was interesting to see the pew research. Get citizens attitude. Limithere we want to crack society and have a right to vote and want to eat. Victoria and i work with secretary albright. She is the chairman and she likes to say people have the right to eat and vote. I think the challenge in most places is that democracies are delivering to the expectations that citizens have, especially in new, emerging democracies. In addition to the authoritarian reach happening to the world, i and i thinkle power that is something we have to be hanging on to and supporting throughout the world. What is your thought . Great to be here. I would agree the numbers are terrible, the trends are terrible and not just recent trends, but over the last decade, they are feeling their and we have almost worse than that, a growing number of states that claim to be democracies that are using the mandates to take down the structures of democracy whether ofis free press or the right Political Parties to form, etc. , think as colleagues have said every single consonant are fighting back, but we have not seen a diminished in street whether you are talking about sudan for hong kong or iraq or still in russia. Drivers isincreasing also interesting which is citizens fighting back against perceived corruption of their leaders and government and this and forl vulnerability citizenscracks that may be unwilling to stand up for a free press, but when they think their government is ripping them off or they think their quality of life is going down while their leaders are enriching themselves, that is something that is dangerous and can be exported exploited by those who want to support democracy by exposing how these folks claim to be leading these countries are enriching themselves so i think it is something we need to focus on going forward. Of last thing is the role the United States for an hour say that in the last administration, there was a full throated americans strong beacon from the white house, although we continue to do all the personal things that we did, but there was much more of a sense that what happens inside the countries is responsible, but now when you have the United States itself not living up to its own Democratic Values, when you have criticisms of the press, criticisms of the independent judicial system, it is very hard for those standing to have thee World Champion that they used to have. I think it is incumbent on us. You let the optimists for last . If you told us that 2 million citizens and hong kong would be sending a to be world leading authoritarian superpower, with a we would say no may. If you would have told us that one third of lebanons populations would be in the streets of beirut demanding political change. If you have told us that algerians would have been protesting in the streets for 40 weeks straight against their military leadership. If you told us that a war criminal incident and or criminal incident in sudan would be subject to justice in this country, at your of us a year ago some of us would have said no way. That is not been democracy is doing fine, but i will cite jackson deal who said there is i wherer twelvemonth per people have not been in the streetod in so many places across cultures demanding better governance, demanding accountability, standing up against political elites. It is kind of trendy to sit around in the west and say gosh, democracy is not working so well. There are people risking their lives for some of the very basic grantedhat we take for living in a country like this. The answer is not ok, but we have so much to work with and the Chinese Communist party has run a total mobilization and Ideological Campaign to say that a foundational threat to the chinese, and his party and their if youe world is are Vladimir Putin in russia, you are not afraid of United States armed forces, maybe other security forces, you are maybe your ownally afraid of citizens. And think democrats need to work harder, make democracy work, need to grapple with new technologies that i think have turned on their head about how technology could power human freedom. There is so much to work with and so many people all of the world who want our support and our help. We have a panel of optimists here. I would like to get into why democracy has been ending ebb ing. Delivering. D it we heard about pushback from authoritarians. Your mind, what is driving the difficulty for democracy . There are about 200 different books on this or less. What i will say is not particularly original, but i would just focus on one issue that we had for your mouse look at and i think sometimes does not get listed as the numberone thing, but certainly up there which is the changing relationship of technology and democracy. 10 years ago when the internet and social media was just gaining steam, activists around the world were using it to mobilize and i think what we have seen is that the bad guys they are able and to use technology to undermine elections, able to survey of the people on and on president it feel on an unprecedented scale. I think technology has accelerated some of the larger trends. I think going forward, that would be issue we will have to grapple with if you are going to try to arrest this democratic decline. I think my number two would theorruption and so much of world that has only grown as a result of the economies , itloping the last 20 years is at levels that are completely unacceptable. I think china has a role in that and the fact that deals are made in back rooms and citizens dont have a voice inside of the lending practices. I think countries are becoming thinked to china and i corruption is uncontrolled right now in most of the world and i think that is in large part why citizens are reacting because the resources coming into the country are not in use to deal with the basics of Health Education and welfare, so i would put corruption is my number two. Weve had a perfect storm over the last three or four ands of drivers of populism autocracy. I think income inequality is another issue and you see the spread growing on almost every continent. It provides fodder for populists who want to turn back the clock to some wished for previous peri stability when the strong man took care of you, the migration crisis as well cause all kinds of fears. It is countries with the lease migration that are most reacting to the theater, but again, rich fodder for autocrats and populists to exploit that somehow you are losing your native history and culture to the other which has gone unchecked and unexplained by democrats. Which plays into this, the lack of leadership. We have not had the great remindingof democracy those in democratic societies how we got a strong and rich has got as strong and prosperous. That allow us to live the way we do, so the voices have been louder and the populists have been stronger. Part of where you sit depends on what you are benchmarking against. Institutes and it was founded in 1983 or it i would like to take 30 seconds to describe some of the not born in 1983 what the state of democracy was. It was quite grim. Most of latin america was military or dictatorships. They countries like south korea, taiwan and indonesia were dictatorships. These are now some of the most vibrant democracies in the world. Half of europe was occupied by the soviet army. Germany was divided. Freedom in the World Freedom house. There is a great map of africa shown there was to democracies, one of them being nigeria. Africa is a transformed landscape in terms of what young people want, what they spire to, the old colonial strongmen. It is not perfect, but part of our perspective on democracy needs to be anchored into reality. Collapsed,et union half of the world emerge from totalitarian occupation and there was a huge surge of democracy. There has always been a struggle between freedom and autocracy and guess what, it is back. 1980s, early 1990s, we saw this explosion of Democratic Forces around the world. We have also seen setbacks. Egypt,e a country like it is not always one way. What is new is seeing setbacks in establish democracy in the United States, europe and elsewhere. You reported that freedom of the world last year. I share your optimism. Awayo do think we are far from where we were at the end of world war two. At the end, there were only a couple thousand democracies in the world. Recession over the last 12 or 13 years has been has set us back, but the question really is, are the worlds democracies Democratic Leaders going to push back against these trends . They will not go away unless or thefight them authoritarian tactics all of the world and just going to the question you asked, one of the things the Freedom House reports over the last couple of years is that there has been a weakening in establish democracies. The 40 strongest democracies in , the last five years ine experienced setbacks Civil Liberties and i think that is not good for the global cause of democracy. I would never compare this country to what is happening in turkey, russia or china. People look to the United States and i think right now, we are not sending out the right cues. In terms of the qs, there is our own behavior and what policies we are advocating and what policies we are supporting. I think it is being willing to call out and recognize the dictators for what they are. Get a warmate welcome. It is a messaging and i think it embolden people like that. What are you seeing in terms of that . Does the embrace, how does that affect your work . Is a big problem. At the same time, i think the democrats see and understand the difference between the Trump Administration and his actions and the values of democracy in the United States and they believe the United States is Democratic Values around the world. They are frustrated that they send a very different signal during i think as long as we have the Trump Administration, it will get harder and harder to underscore those values. I think it will get harder for. S to say this is just an anomaly, it is not going to last. We are still supporting human rights and democracy around the world. It now, i think we have the values we hold dear to help people understand what was most dear to them. I think it is difficult for this president. You have served in a number of senior policy positions. On the other hand we had a country that was repressing people. What is the balance when you are dealing with a friendly country innot so for the country terms of balancing the human rights . I think the strongest american president , the strongest leader from both parties including senator mccain or able to walk and chew gum at the same time. They were able to make clear and whenitical as necessary the foreign country you are dealing with was not a pressing its citizens and living up to the standards that we thought those citizens were deserved. Would try to, we find common interests and action actions that could benefit everybody. Doing arms control, being absolutely clear about the human rights situation. I think it is difficult. Diplomat, years as a how to talk to other countries around the world about the strength it gives you, once you submit to press kerry schism press criticism, when youre not afraid to have your opponents when you divest your own tax returns for your assets before you recover, all of the things that america would preach to other countries that were trying to be more derided democratic, but we dont live up to the values ourselves, it would be hard to be wearing americas tshirts out in the without the strong moral backing. Do you feel push back, sometimes you have to feel a little shy about these issues . Actually, democracy budgets are going up. Wonderful freedom polling, maybe you have some more specific numbers, showing that super majority of americans understand and support democracy around the world and what that makes it safer. It is not if the American Public has walked away from the issues. The American Public for alliances has gone up, including nato. I would say in a democracy, politicians are going to follow the public. Of course, they should also lead. Theres a very strong base of support in the United States for americas traditional commitment. There are a lot of students of. Istory here american support for democracy did not start with Ronald Reagan was the origins of the cold war. It started in 1776. We are also seeing a little bit of a gap between love people between people. Groups from young people, one of the things we orrd is noninterference, they should not be [no audio] it is not our job to go out and preach this. How would you come to that . Counter that . I think this was a compelling argument in the 1990s. A lot of people in europe and beyond were asking. Question istal whether or not the u. S. Is intervening. Madero would not be in power if madero would not be in power if it was not for the intervention of russia in the balkans. I went to serve the able in all i heard about was what the russians were up to, iranians were up to, the turks in the balkans and finally, i said what about europe and it turns out there or all these actors out in the world and i would say america fundamentally is a force for good. There are others who are not. Look at libya where turkey and russia are particularly starting to fight each other. Interveningis not in libya, but other actors are. I would add that it is urban legend that the u. S. Has ever with theemocracy germany and japan. What we do is support democratic withs in countries democratic transformations were citizens to use them or when n them. Wi as said, the autocrats are seeking to impose their system and the rules of the road. That is different than saying we betterhe way we live is for individual humans and better for the stability of the planet. Here is how you do it and living up to the values and supporting activists who want to get there. Year the focus groups saying democracy, that is a thing in afghanistan. This is a longstanding tradition and things we can do to help and we cannot impose as we said. You mentioned funding was up which may surprise people because we havent a ministration that is not wholeheartedly committed. What is happening with funding in washington. It is a tremendous testament in congress and democrats. I would say it has always been bipartisan for large part. This is a situation where you who is administration for they aid were saying no to this a ministration, so i think in thee part its credit to consensus exists on the hill. It is also a result of the democracy community to educate and inform members of congress what is rolling what is really going on around the world. The people protesting in hong kong are not doing get because the United States has been involved at all, these are. Eople who need our support and needs to understand that. It is a combination of maybe new members traditionalith some republicans and democrats who have been committed to this for years despite the fact that people in the white house and other branches of government are wholeheartedly opposed to this funding. Even in todays hyperpartisan washington, you are still seeing that kind of prosperity cooperation on this . Yes. The budget for the National Endowment for democracy has been. Lmost doubled Additional Resources have been provided to the bureau for democracy, human rights, and labor, the state department. That is all within the last three to six months. In terms of how the Trump Administration does approach these issues, one of the issues we have heard a great deal about is the importance of religious freedom internationally and that being a priority for this Administration Due in part to their constituencies. Has that displaced the broader human rights agenda of the state department, do you think, mike . Going back to a point victoria made at the beginning of the conversation about obama transitioning to trump and human rights, i think probably the transition has not been as abrupt as some people would say. Area of continuity is in i was looking at the minsky act and the fact that this is an act that was passed on a bipartisan basis at the end of the obama administration, and as best as i can tell, its largely been, you know, fairly robustly enforced. There were a couple of glaring examples of the saudis, who were responsible for the murder of khashoggi, the chinese officials who were involved with him uses with abuses, but i think that act has been enforced. That is an important human rights tool that allows the Treasury Department to sanction gross abusers of human rights and corrupt officials. I think the funding has stayed relatively the same day think theres certain the same and i think there certain issues where the administration has continued a fairly strong human rights focus. I think there are others where there is less, you know, positive from a human rights perspective, but in some ways, maybe this might be radical, but i am not sure the change has been so radical. I would also say i think the administration is doing a lot of talking about religious freedom. Ut not acting on that speech the situation for muslims around the world has never been worse, particularly when you start with one million incarcerated but looking across the broader middle east as well. Greatow, we have a tradition of using sanctions appropriately in the context of supporting religious freedom. They were not born at that period, legislation that penalized the soviet union in trade terms for its treatment of soviet jews. But also sanctions on middle Eastern Countries for treatment of question minorities, etc. But i dont see any Foreign Policy tools being used against any countries currently for abuse of religious freedom. Ok. Theres been a new commission on inalienable rights at the state department. Can you give us a little insight into what that is . Mike testified before them. I dont want to miss my turn but he can give you an answer that i cannot. 1. I probably neglected to say is that up until a couple of months ago, the administration was without, you know, politically confirmed since the second charge of this. Thats three years. I dont think we really heard too much from the state department on these issues and secretary pompeo, when he came into office, he asked a former , therofessor from harvard chair commission to look at human rights policy. Candidly, i am not quite sure what the agenda that commission is. Theres some concerns that it pretext to elevate certain human rights like religious freedom. I would say they invited me to testify. The questions were good. Know,nvited a pretty, you Cross Section of human rights advocates from both right, left, and middle. So we would like to see what they come up with. We have some concerns. Ratifyefully, they will a strong human rights tradition as part of u. S. Foreign policy. We are going to go to questions in just a minute so if you have questions, be thinking about them and prepare to go to the mikes. There may be two questions. Thinking about 2020, what worries you, where do you seep trouble brewing, and what gives you some sense of hope, some optimism . We heard a few upbeat cases in the beginning. We will start that work here. Thiswant to come back to point about interference. America provides democracy assistance to empower people in their countries to decide their own future. One new feature of the landscape that certainly has not existed for at least 30 years is that in different ways, russia and china are exporting authoritarianism. They are actually trying to and divert democratic practice. In countries like ukraine, in the case of russia, in countries like moldova, georgia. In the case of china, they are using corrupt investments. They are using influence operations, various sophisticated forms of propaganda. This is a landscape that is quite new for the United States. Inare all out of business the business because we care about the ability of people to decide their own futures. Great powere now authoritarian competitors who are actively working to subvert democracy so that they can build liberaliberal feels il and leverage that against the United States and that is new. This links to the National Security committee. You were asking about Administration Support and how we are doing. Define theres a lot of bandwidth when we talk to our friends in the administration who may not naturally wake up every day thinking about democracy and human rights. Theres a lot of bandwidth for the argument that hostile autocracies are using soft power instruments. Nonmilitary instruments to project authoritarianism. The United States, to sustain the free and open world that so Many Americans invested so much lives and treasure and blood in, needs to reinvest in our own soft power instruments to help citizens around the world beside their own fate because when people are free to choose, they choose to be part of a free world. That does not mean they agree with america on every issue but they choose to live in democratic partner countries. They do not choose to be part of a new chinese and russian empire. This is the big thing unfolding in our current era. I completely agree. To say that we dont have our own act together, we do not have our act together as the united tes, as the leader maximize our ability to expose nefarious use of the internet and protect the end open governance to protect journalists and investigative efforts to expose corruption, to bring cases and suits and get out there and information about how autocratic people are abusing their use of soft power to abuse Citizens Rights beyond their borders. All of these kinds of things. It would not be very difficult to organize ourselves to defend democracy more efficiently, first at home, but then in the purported democratic space, where backsliding is much a problem as anything else. To get on offense visavis this authoritarian wave, which is using soft and hard instruments. We understand the hard instruments. We can intellectualize and articulate the problem with the soft instruments but we are not organized as a community of democracies to beat them, and we ought to get our act together. One of the things that really keeps us up at night is the fact that young people all over the world have really lost confidence in traditional politics. I think thats true in the United States, but its really true around the world. And we have been talking about all the reasons why they have lost confidence, but they are choosing not to join the mainstream political movements or Political Parties, and in many places, they are choosing to go to the streets to protest, and that having an impact. The problem is, they are not really going to achieve significant change unless they find a more traditional vehicle to do it. Its one thing to go to the streets, to get hundreds of thousands of people out to oust even a dictator, but where do they go from here . I think its also just a tragic comment on the world today that young people have lost confidence in us. They have lost confidence in the establishment because of corruption, because of the widening gap between the rich and poor, because governments are not able to provide basic health, education, welfare. That is our responsibility to do something about, but its also, at the same time, looking around the students here, sort of a call to action for all of you, and i think its exciting that so many students here who are interested in being involved in World Affairs and Foreign Policy and model united nations, which i am a big fan of. But we need to find a way to get young people interested and committed to not only go to the streets but also to find ways to organize for real political change. You asked about an issue that the pessimism side, i would say one country i think will be interesting to watch is india. That has been a country that has been declining slightly and it liberalen a fairly il turn and perhaps the Prime Minister is now emboldened because of his reelection. This needs to be seen as part of a global problem of how both democracies and nondemocracies accommodate minority views, minority religions, ethnic groups, and so forth. I mean, to us at Freedom House, if you look around the world, this is one of the major problems. Democracy is not just about winning an election. Its also about pluralism and respecting the rights of minority groups and making sure that they have a voice. If you look around the world, that is a big issue, and i think india is an interesting case study right now. Sudan. Back to a country, i have been following sudan for quite some time. Its amazing, a country where the leadership arguably commits genocide in darfur, hundreds of thousands of people displaced populared, and revolution with really not a lot of support from outside, it generated protests that upended the dictator, and now, the dictator could be on his way to the icc, so its really vital, i think its not clear what the outside world can do to help, but it seems to me that is a very hopeful situation and one that i am going to be we are going to be rooting for going forward. Ok. I think we will open up to questions now. We have the mic set up. If you can keep your questions concise, follow the model used earlier, we will take one from each side, and then we will go on. Go ahead. Give us your name and question, please. My name is sebastian. Thank you all for the work you do. Thank you all for coming here. My question you guys touched on this a lot. The bright hope rights popular movements. People out in the streets, things like that. My question is, how can we get that to translate i think you brought this up. Translate to actual formal political change and what is the role of everyone in this room and outside of it as political thinkers in making that happen . Thank you. My name is jack mcguire. I am a phd student here. Little closer. Ati am a phd student here Florida International university. My research revolves around immigration in the United States. Its not really a question but more of a statement i would like people panelists to respond to. We seem to support human rights in countries very selectively. And lots of times, we support operations for instance, dictators that serve our interests, and that and up fueling cycles that bring about more impressive regime, for instance in iran, we overthrew the democratically elected government, and then appointed a dictator. Iran revolted and put in the regime we have now in place. In guatemala in 1954, we overthrew the democratically elected government there. And then, that help sparked a 36 helpedvil war where we train, fund, provide weapons to an army that committed genocide against its own people, killed 300,000 indigenous guatemalan presence. Today, we still support that government in guatemala we put in. In honduras, theres another government and forgetting its name. His brother just got arrested in miami for Drug Trafficking a month ago, and that Drug Trafficking has been reportedly gone through his brothers president ial campaign after he ran again for president , which was constitutionally not allowed. People asm to support long as they serve our interests, even if they do not support those human rights. But when we when it is someone else russia or china notorts or who does necessarily hold our ideological views, we call them a dictator and impose all the sanctions. Thank you. Who wants to take on sebastians question about moving from protest movements into politics. We heard the tail end. Quickly, i think that is one of the challenges we see. Especially with young people. They will do the protests but they really dont want to get involved in politics. Is,the fact of the matter the only way, right now, that we can change things, is to get involved in politics. Either as a candidate or join a party. It does not matter where you live. And so, this disconnect is a challenge. We have to figure out how to do that. I think we have got to help young people and help the people on the street understand that it is worth taking the risk to get engaged politically and try to reform the process from within. The protests in oz year you have been going on for almost a year. And part of the reason they have not actualized into something more is because they are not forming policies. They are not trying to influence elections. They are not trying to organize a new party. They are just going to the streets every day. I do not have the answer. I will just say that we spoke about the National Endowment for ocracy getting almost doubling its budget thanks to the Congress Bipartisan support this year. One of the main focuses of the endowment as a whole, but also for both of the institutes is exactly this issue. Those who arepare willing to protest to actually govern if they get the opportunity . Because we were relatively successful at supporting the development of Political Parties in central and Eastern Europe at the end of the cold war but less successful in the middle east. Egypt being a prime example where you had great energy which did not translate into Political Parties that could be effective. The Muslim Brotherhood quickly lost its ability to compromise as you have to have in a democracy, and now, how are you going to get from street to action in hong kong, sudan, algeria, other places . This is something thats very important, that activists have to be thinking about, if you actually did win, who are your allies, how are you going to govern, what is your platform, what is most important, how do you convert that energy to actually being able to be steward of the trust that people have put in you . I will take the cold war question, the flashback question. You know, i think the u. S. I cannot see the questionnaire. We got out of that business. We made a lot of mistakes during the cold war. We should not sell flagellate ourselves. Look at what life was like under the soviet empire. Right . But more fundamentally, this also comes to the point about should the u. S. Work with countries that are not democracies . Victor shaw is a fellow of the bush institute. He has a great book about the origins of the u. S. Alliance structure in asia. When the u. S. Built an Alliance Structure in asia after the pacific war, other than japan, our allies were not democracies, but guess what happened over the course of half a century of being an american ally . Taiwan, south korea, one by one, countries democratized. Decisivelytervened in the philippines at a critical period. So American Partnership actually can incubate more open politics. The problem in latin America Today is not u. S. Military interventionism. In iran, people were in the streets of 100 cities of iran last fall. They were not protesting against the United States, not chanting death to america. They were saying down with the mullahs. And why is our money going to fund terrorist operations in 10 countries . We need that money here at home. In hong kong, people were flying american flags in the streets of hong kong not because of anything america is doing. We are not part of that. Its easy to be in america and read the newspapers every day and be very cynical, but in fact, when you go out in the world, people still look to us. Yes, sir. Hello. I want to know why didnt we see a stronger response for america about the clampdown and cashmere and the citizenship law in india . Thank you. I am one of the students kashmir and the citizenship law in india . To competee expect with chinas one thought, one Road Initiative that does not priority belt, one Road Initiative that does not prioritize human rights . A couple points. One thing i would say , i cannot speak to my we did not do more there. This issue of shutting down the kind of a way of that is a trend that is gaining currency around the world, that illiberalor governments, they are not putting up with criticism. They are just shutting down the platforms by which people can that is a really serious concern going back to the technology issue. If i can just say one thing on the issue of the United States, just to add to what dan said, because i wanted to make a bent, i think u. S. Can criticized for a variety of things, but i do think when the United States does not stand up for these values and rights, there are very few other people then very few other people in the world will stand up for them so there is a vacuum thats created. China will not stand up for these values. Russia will not, turkey will not stand up for these values. You see what happened in syria where we withdrew and the bad guys are rushing to prop up a dictator. Same thing in venezuela. I think it is a complicated issue, but there is a problem when the u. S. Withdraws from advocating for these values. The question about how do we compete with the belltown road belt and road the chinese model . There was much fanfare and much embracing and much inviting in the early years, and now, recipient countries are beginning to get wise when they see what has happened in sri lanka, when they see what has happened in lots of african countries, and it is exactly the thateralism of the belt the lending and road, the fact that the lending is not transparent. Workers are not employed let alone treated right. The Environmental Standards are zero. The fact that a lot of these deals are done in the dead of night between corrupt governments and the chinese leadership, and the elected leaders are not part of that process. Countries are starting to react to it. I think our great strength now is twofold. First of all and exposing all of the dangers of this kind of assistancepredatory that favors china far more than the recipient countries, and setting some standards that countries that want to take the money but protect themselves ought to set for this kind of a relationship, but i also think you are right. We are not doing enough as a democratic family chancellor merkel has spoken to this and others to get back in the business of what we are strongly in throughout the cold war and particularly in the 1990s of working together as a democratic family to target assistance, including infrastructure spending, to those countries that could make the best use of it. Things like the millennial millennium challenge corporation, where we were particularly doing targeted investments in partnership with countries that were new and fragile democracies across latin america, asia, and the middle east. Thank you. Yes. Good evening, everybody. I am currently a first Year Graduate student for global affairs, focusing on globalization and security. I am from the democratic republic of congo. I have seen firsthand what not having structures and democracy can do to ones life. I have myself been treated wrongly and i have seen the suffering around my people. I do appreciate democracy. I do appreciate the intervention of the United States in so many countries because you do save lives and remove us from the hands of these dictators. What i do have an issue with is the fact that we fail to recognize that a lot of the people are not aware of what the power of democracy truly is. So it is good to come and tell other countries we should have democracy, but there is no way of teaching people what is democracy and what kind of power they hold in their hands as a person, as is civilian an individual as myself. I am standing here before you, so i have been privileged enough to come and get an education and understand what that is, but for the normal bread seller or woman in the marketplace, they do not know what kind of power they hold, so what can the United States as a global leader, that we do look up to, can do to make that process more structured and more focused in order to achieve democracy . Right now in congo, we have had elections, but we do have a dictator in power. Even though there were elections. It is not a true democracy. Thank you. I will be brief. Dont you think it is time that Speaker Pelosi and lederman, invite the democratically elected woman president of taiwan to speak to a joint session of congress . Excuse me. How do we do a better job of selling it, if i can put it that way, democracy to the average person . Verye comment is appropriate. It is a real challenge for many citizens around the world to understand the value of democracy. We are fortunate here in the unit they that we are educated from the time we start school until we go into university to have Civic Education. I think that is one thing really need to do more of, is to help refocus the educational systems in emerging democracies so that they do have a Civic Education curriculum. To take on. G feat that is a big problem. We see that every day in the work we do around the world. Can i take the taiwan question . Taiwan is having a very important election the day after tomorrow. This is a genuine chinese democracy. When you hear a Chinese Communist party leader Mainland China say Chinese Culture is incompatible with democracy or with a free media or rule of law , taiwan is a living example that that is not the case. Just as the Hong Kong Movement is another example of the fact that people in confucian cultures want the same rights and freedoms as the rest of us. In taiwan, its also a great example of foreign intervention, because the Chinese Communist party is running a pretty intense disinformation campaign. They did this in taiwans local elections last year and actually threw the results. The other party that is not in power did surprisingly well, significantly exceeded polling expectations, partly because of this malign foreign intervention. The current president of taiwan is saying vote for my party. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Do you want to live in a free Chinese Society or do you want to end up looking like those people in those camps or those poor people in hong kong being gassed tear gas asking for their most basic rights . That is an interesting question in the future of china because taiwan is an example of the fact that there are no cultural free determinants into how a country should organize itself. And yes, you should come speak to congress. We are unfortunately out of time. I want to thank this terrific panel for being here. You heard president bush mentioned the new report by the bush institute. It is called to his freedom by mccall. This panel,hanking and thank you all. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspans washington journal, live every day with news that impacts you. Coming up tuesday morning, we will talk about the state of the u. S. Manufacturing industry and Trump Administration economic policies with scott paul of the alliance for american manufacturing. And then, as part of museum week, we will be live from the National Museum of the marine corps with senior curator owen connor and Marine Corps History Division director edward to discuss the 75th anniversary of the battle of iwo jima. Watching cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern tuesday morning. And be sure to wash washington journal watch washington morning, we will explore the smithsonian National Museum of american history. Wgbh tv in boston hosted a debate between senator ed markey and two of his challengers in the 2020 massachusetts democratic primary. Congressman joe kennedy and attorney sharon les riordan. Watch live on 7 00 eastern on cspan or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Our cspan campaign 2020 bus is asking across is asking voters, what issues should president ial candidates address . The most important issue for me as civil rights and Civil Liberties. Voting rights, productive rights, kamal Justice Reform and reproductive freedom. We are seeing them being violated left and right. They are just as important as every other issue. Moste issue that is important to me is the fact our veterans do not have housing. I feel as though new hampshire, since it is one of our 50 states, should do more for its veterans. Right now, veterans have to leave and either go to vermont or go to massachusetts in order to get the services they need. I do not think that is appropriate. These people make a sacrifice for our country. They should have the services when they come home. I am interested in having candidates focus on environmental policy. Simply saying youre going to rejoin the paris accord is not real policy. The most important thing to me about this campaign is the truth. We need to work ongoing violence. Need to work on college education. We have a lot of things to work on. When the senate votes openly and against the truth in partisan manner, it is time for us to return to our roots, face facts, listen to witnesses. It is time to face the truth and move forward. We cannot do that if we do not open our eyes and pay attention. When the most important issues to me is education including the current cost of education for postgraduate and graduate work. Also, the concerning legislation in thes been coming up Trump Administration in regards to secondary education and k12. Done a lot has not of good for teachers. As a teacher, i have seen it. Education is number one. That is why i am voting. Voices from the road on cspan. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Crated by cable in 1979 and brought to you today by your television provider. Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg spoke to caucusgoers at a town hall in carcass in carson city on president s day. Trialtioned the recent and took questions on finance, education and water rights. Oh my goodness. My name is brady hill. Brady like tom or the brady bunch. Organizerarson city for the mayor Pete Buttigieg campaign here. I am so