You can find more information in your program guide. Now, heres gordon chang. Good afternoon. If i could have your attention. We are going to get started. Im susanna sheltie president of defense Form Foundation is my great honor to welcome you to our congressional defense and Foreign Policy form. Please enjoy your lunch and help yourself to anything you might need during the program. I know you all are very busy so im especially appreciative of you taking the time to be here for this very timely program. For those of attending the form for the first time, the forms began in 1980s as a way to bring expert speakers to capitol hill to discuss critical topics and bipartisan collegial atmosphere and as we promised, we have an expert speaker to address a critical topic. And very bipartisan collegial atmosphere. One thing to note there are a lot of media here so i would ask during the question answer period if you would reserve that for the Congressional Staff because of their limited time constraints on their schedules. We are very honored to have gordon chang, prolific writer, a fearless commentator, and a bold thinker to address whats happening in asia today. Especially for the citizens of hong kong and south korea who were on the front lines of freedom. Gordon is the author of losing south Korea Nuclear showdown, north korea takes on the world and the coming collapse of china. He is a columnist at the daily beast and his rising on chiding have been featured in numerous newspapers from the New York Times to the wall street journal. He is also a frequent commentator on cnn fox news msnbc, pbs and bbc and many others as well as a regular call host and guest on the John Batchelor show. I know his time is in great demand so we are very honored that he has taken the time to be here to speak for the congressional Foreign Policy form on the topic. Hong kong and south korea. On the front lines in the battle for freedom. Gordon b. [applause] i am very honored to be here, suzanne, thank you so much. Take you everyone for coming. It hong kong and south korea people are fighting for their freedoms and for their societies. They are also on their frontline protecting us. The explanation begins in hong kong were almost nightly there is a clash of two armies. One of them dressed in green in full riot gear the other is regularly clad in black, the youthful protesters. Why do we have these clashes . Hes like the peoples republic of china, beijing, reneged on promises. In the sight of british speculation of 1984 china promised hong kong a high degree of autonomy for 50 years under the one country two systems formula. Beijing, however, since the hand over the return of hong kong to china that occurred in 1997. Since that time china has encroached almost freedoms and taken away that autonomy. Chinas attempt to prematurely seize control of hong kong, therefore is the direct and primary cause of the marches the protest and disturbances weve seen since april but especially since the middle of june. The immediate grievance was the extradition bill proposed by carrie lam, the hong kong chief executive. The chief political official in hong kong. This bill would have allowed hong kong to send fugitives to the people of europe a where of course there is no rule of law. There is no justice. Of course this sparked opposition among the socalled pan Democratic Forces but it also was opposed by the Business Community. The probeijing Business Community was concerned that hong kong would no longer be a refuge. That they would be subject to their predatory Chinese Business partners who would use the bill as a weapon to reach into hong kong and take them into the mainland. But the reason why i think the extradition bill provokes such a sharp reaction was that it was the last straw for many people. Now people say, and i think it is true, that hong kong berries have drawn the line. They believe the extradition bill is the last stand for their homeland. Even now, after lam has announced a permanent withdrawal of the bill, thats one of the five demands, even after this, the protest continue with the same force and the same varying lengths. Its no longer about the extradition bill. Its about china. Society, i think, is amazingly united you see somewhere between two thirds and three quarters of the people have absolutely determined that china is on the line after. Therefore weve seen something also interesting or more appropriately, we havent seen something, the dog that has not barked is that the mass of people in hong kong have not criticized the always rowdy and sometimes violent protests of the young kids. The ones who are in black. I think most hong kong girls right now have evidently decided that they are much more concerned about the Excessive Force used by the police. By the intransigence of carrie lam and by the intrusive actions of beijing. They are much more concerned about those things that they are about the tactics of the youthful demonstrators. Hong kong are fighting back. Because they are fighting back china is not moving its tanks and its armor and its troops into hong kong. I think that china does not think that if they did so this would be a 10 bed as people talk about. To admit it is a reference to june 1989 when chinese troops advance from the western approaches of the city to the center. Killing in an unrestricted way. Hong kong will be different. Hong kong is an urban landscape. It has Tall Buildings and narrow streets that favor the defenders. If the chinese were to move into hong kong in a forceful way, there would be high casualties. But on both sides. I dont think that xi jinping the chinese ruler wants his first years to take years or decades to result in high chinese casualties and end in defeat. So why should we Americans Care what happens on the periphery of chinese soil . We care because the same power that is encroaching on hong kong is also attacking our democracy. Indeed that power is attacking the concept of democracy. China is gunning for all of us when my wife and i were in hong kong in the beginning of this month we talked to formerly probeijing journalist who was jailed now just journalist. He looked at me and he said, whats happening in hong kong where china is doing hong kong is a warning to the United States. So thats true, people in hong kong do need america but we need the people in hong kong. Over there people are fighting for their homes. If we ignore their struggle, we very well might be doing the same thing in the not too distant future. Hong kong is the front line of freedom. Theres another frontline. Thats south korea. President moon jaein is doing his best to end democracy and south korea. More important, he is working to and south korea itself. Thats the state that he was elected to defend, thats the state he took an oath of office to defend. We got a hint of that on august 15 of this year. This was supposed to be 71st anniversary of the founding of the republic of korea 1948. He gave an address to the nation but he managed to not talk about the state that he leads. Instead of talking about the 71st anniversary of the founding of south korea, he talked about sent 10 to rev of the founding over the proclamation of the provisional government of korea. That never existed. In 1919 korea had already been annexed by japan. So why did he do this . Why did he talk about the provisional government . The provisional government intended to govern all of korea and blue giant is a Korean National anationalist. Not a south korean one. His goal is the unification of south korea. There is no surprise that his a amood has emphasized the union the two koreas. Since the division of the Korean Peninsula in 1945, every Korean Leader, north and south, has advocated unification. But mood appears to be the first Korean Leader since then to accept the unification proposals of the other side and he is doing his best to achieve that unification as quickly as he can. To pave the way for the unification of the two koreas, he is trying to make south koreas form of government compatible with the north. Most fundamentally, bones Democratic Party of korea in 2018 tried to amend the constitution of the republic. They tried to remove the notion of liberal from the concept of democracy. Fortunately bone failed in this effort. The south conservatives, the opposition turned back the effort but mood has kept trying. The ministry of education has been trying to change the textbooks. Trying to take out this concept of liberalism theyve succeeded in part because in the textbooks for the middle school as my friend tara pointed out they deleted the word freedom. Remember, north korea thinks its democratic so south korea is a democracy but its not liberal, its not free. Then it looks a little bit like north korea in at least theoretical terms. Blue giant, whats the name . Whats the formal name of the state he leads . Its the democratic peoples republic of china real. Boots party is also democratic but lets party is leading the charge against democracy in the south. When giant, the 19th president of the public of korea is determined to be its last one. In moon jaein, whose family for more than seven decades has tried to absorb south korea. He pretty much agrees the same thing. Therefore, we need to talk about one day. April 15 2020. On that day there will be National Assembly elections. All 300 seats in south koreas Unicameral Legislature are up for grabs. Theres a lot of reasons why that election is important but let me focus on one of them. Thats the amendment of the constitution of the republic of korea. Under article 130 the president can propose amendments to the constitution. Article 130 also provides that proposals to amend the constitution must receive at least two thirds of the vote in the National Assembly. After that, it goes to a popular referendum. In that popper popular referendum only the simple majority of the people of south korea have to approve. Mood is unpopular as he is could very well get that simple majority because he is counting the vote. So the most important thing for job won the most important for the opposition in korea, those who want to preserve their democracy is to make sure they take back control of the National Assembly. They will try to amend the constitution but april 15 therefore, is a do or die, now or never in its also a time to safeguard rights, democracy and freedom in the republic of korea. Since becoming president in 2017 moon has tried to return south korea to a more authoritarian style of governance. He has, for instance, taken control of the big broadcasters to reduce the airing of dissenting views and also to permit views that promote north koreas. To control his messaging moon has also gone after social media to prevent what he calls social discontent or social distrust. His party has gone especially after youtube which has become a primary forum for opposition voices. They tried to enact censorship laws but they dont really need to enact those laws because they have tried to pressure [inaudible] and have done this in a number of ways of starting for instance a tax evasion investigation immediately after they refused to take down 104 videos put up by conservative voices in south korea. Moreover, moon has been relentless using the National Police authority to investigate those who views the moon has found to be discordant. You dont need to be factually incorrect to be the target of a Police Investigation more than 70 South Koreans are now being investigated some of them journalists because they started to question where moon was during five hours this april when the wildfires in the eastern portion of the country were raging. Dont even think of mentioning the massacre of 1980 unless, of course, you accept moons narrative. Its not a good idea in the south korea of 2019 to criticize what moon calls the may 18 Democratization Movement and you dont want to use what he called preposterous marks and it is a sin to mention the north korea might possibly have had a hand in those disturbances. And now with the appointment on the ninth of this month of the controversy all, possibly correct, but in favor of north korea he was Justice Minister and this will make the situation in the south even worse. Once government has also sought to silence other critics especially defectors from north korea and does not want their voices to talk about her thick nature of the regime and also, were starting to see what some conservatives call a quote unquote reign of terror. Radicals in seoul have been putting up wanted posters for north korean defectors and putting their lives in danger and now criticized north korean defectors as quote unquote, scum. The noun aureus group along with the association flower has openly and with impunity challenge critics of the government and those who criticize north korea and they are dangerous. They have invaded into classrooms to shout propaganda and intruded into the offices of daily [inaudible] which is a new site in seoul and they have actually broken into the offices of the Human Rights Organization to disrupt the functions. They have made public Death Threats and they have staged plays in soul showing people bound with representative. They have scuffled with police. No surprise then that many people in the opposition think free democracy is on the verge of collapse especially someone on september 24, statements. In short opposition conservative voices have been pressured and prosecuted and coerced and been harassed. In the new south korea we are even starting to see some of the fear in the big flag rallies on weekends many people hide their faces or try to make sure the photographers dont catch them. They are concerned about attribution from the government. Was not supposed to be this way. Women was inaugurated in may 20 something he said quote i will strive to get rid of authoritarian practices in the presidency. Now obviously that promise has not been kept in this is ironic was once a human rights lawyer any campaigner for democracy. We cant blame them for authoritarianism in south korea and that has been there from the start started with the first president and we sought during the strong man and of course to generals turned president [inaudible] but nonetheless we also saw in succeeding in ministrations a move to democracy and liberalization. We can clearly say the south korea was a moral place during moons to predecessors [inaudible]. Lets be clear about whats occurring now. Its the reversal of decadelong processes to make south korea a more free and open and democratic society. Some people have suggested that the un appoint a special [inaudible] and things have gotten that bad. Unfortunately the south korea of tomorrow could look like the south korea of the past. Maybe even it could look like north korea. What is most disturbing is that moon has been trying to take down the defenses of south korea. We have talked about the september 2018 agreement that moon reached with kim jungun when moon went to pyongyang in that agreement clearly favors the attacker north korea much more with observation posts, fencing near the Demilitarized Zone is also been lamenting plans to make the south korea army mall or in circumstances which are quite puzzling and he has been undermining south koreas alliance with the United States. There is one country one country that has pledged to the events of south korea and it is the country the rush to south koreas defense after the North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel on june 205th 1950 and its the one country that has 28500 horses in south korea now and it is the United States of america. Most people in south korea support the alliance. This was made clear by an Institute Council on Foreign Relations which was released in january and it doesnt matter what most people what south korea think and they dont count politically in the new south korea. What matters is what one person thanks that person moon is president. He has allowed the senior officials to mischaracterize the American Alliance to inflame opinion and has made it difficult for the United States to maintain its battery of the terminal High Altitude area Defense System and going behind the back of his only ally he came to the agreement with the Chinese Foreign minister late in october 2017 with the infamous three nose. Note to more emplacements of bad batteries, no two south korea amortization in Ballistic Missile defense and no to a try Apartheid Alliance with the United States and japan. These negative covenants made with out us undermine our ability to defend the south. And they are as some have said a different to a chinese bullet, a chinese bully with supported a north korean aggressor. I cannot say because im not in his head and that he hates america but when our president visited south korea at the end of june president for the next two moon in the first lady and the first lady was wearing conspicuously a blue butterfly brooch. Im not sure our president understood the significance of that political statement but the blue butterfly has become a symbol of anti americanism in south korea. What moon was doing was disrespecting, not just President Trump but he was disrespecting the United States of america. Let me close with just one point. In recent months moon has been whipping up anti japan sentiment. We paid attention when moon terminated military information sharing agreement a few weeks ago. I can understand antijapanese sentiment. My father during world war ii was one of millions, perhaps tens of millions of chinese who fled the japanese marauding army. He was in shanghai at the time going to school and he then walked west along with everybody else and hitched a ride and he just got himself to places like [inaudible] where he was strafed by the japanese and went to other cities getting away from the chinese. Lets be clear. No japanese official who prosecuted that war is alive today. No japanese who was an authority in korea during the annexation is alive today. Moon has to understand that regardless of how he feels he needs japan and in the case of the North Koreans invade in the case the chinese ate them like they did in the korean war the United States will need japans cooperation to defend south korea. We will need the forces that we have in japan and will also need tokyos active cooperation. I dont think moon particularly cares and probe north korea from china and anti america but in short is a danger to south korea which means the danger to freedom which means is a danger to us. Our frontline today, frontline of our freedom is hong kong and south korea. It is time for we americans in time for we americans to step up and defend them. Thank you very much. [applause] if you agree with me im a you can go home to if not, ask questions. [laughter] i will do my best but i feel safe because [inaudible] is here. Many other korean experts yes, sir. [inaudible] i suppose everyone for that but the question is would try to intervene as the second part of the question and first part is independent is a possibility . Look, everyone who is smart will tell you that independence is not a real possibility. I take a different view. If you go back to 1997 which was the handover everybody was pro beijing and everyone was patriotic in place was swarming with all sorts of red flags and a five years ago we started to see kids in their 20s where tshirts with the union jack on them was one of the ultimate disrespect of beijing because what it said was life was much better under a white master who was 5000 miles away than it is to be ruled by my own kind. What we have seen since that time is the movement and the self identification of people in hong kong as not chinese. About ten days ago someone released a survey which showed that four people in hong kong under the age of 3099 said they were not chinese and they said they were hong kong. That is an important move towards an independent state. When you have this and then of course last week we have heard the National Anthem quote unquote of hong kong. Lori to hong kong sung by throughout society and once you get the National Anthem you are on road to getting a nation. I dont think china china, of course, could kill everyone in hong kong with 7. 4 Million People. They are capable but i dont think they will but short of that i dont think they can quell what is occurring right now. It is going and i dont think beijing has an answer. Carry lamps as the saying maybe will make housing cheaper in life better from an economic point of view and that might have a marginal effect but it will not affect what people really think. That is right now they believe they should have their own society. All the slogans you hear or see in the photograph those point to an independent hong kong sticks. Yeah, it will be hard but it will not be impossible as people will tell you. What will it take for china to intervene connect china does not want to intervene because the reason that i mentioned also because it would end hong kong as a special Financial Center where a lot of communist countries get their money out of the country so it is, in some sense, protected but they will intervene under one condition when they think that the people in hong kong are inspiring protests throughout the mainland. People in the mainland if they took a poll and its hard to pull on a sensitive subject but if they were to take a poll which was fair and accurate you would find some are about the 9 or maybe 95 of the people did not suffice with people in hong kong. Basically the view in Mainland China is those guys are rich and have everything so why are they complaining. But people in hong kong have pushed carry lamps around and theyve pushed to a certain extent beijing around and people in the mainland especially in a deteriorating economy which is not going at the sixpoint to percent they claim for the first half of this year which may be contracting if you start to look at the august indicators and whatever it is its not growing the way it once was and theyve got grievances and all sorts of complaints, economic, noneconomic and they say if i protest those guys in hong kong may push carry them around so i can i do the same thing. I have grievances myself. If they can do it, i can do it. Thats when beijing will intervene. I think beijing will not intervene lightly but nonetheless a desperate insecure communist militant superstate they can do anything. Yes, sir. [inaudible] the question is what will happen in 2047 . This is the end of the 50 year time that was promised with the british declaration. I dont know the answer to that and i and that most people in beijing right now are not looking at 2047. I think theyre looking at 2019 because right now theyve got a situation where they cant really control things. They tried almost every tactic in hong kong and put chinese soldiers into the Hong Kong Police were in Hong Kong Police uniforms and they have brought out the thugs and now have gotten carry lamps and i want to talk to 150 randomly selected people, good luck with that, i dont think that they are thinking that far ahead. Theyve got two important anniversaries coming up. October 1 when hong kong is not going to be rejoicing in the presumption of chinese rule and by the way, carry lamp canceled the big fireworks display on october 1. They have another date coming up for next year the 100 year founding of the communist party. Thats another date on the protest calendar, im sure but the trying to focus on the here and now with the comes to 2047, who knows . I dont know what theyre thinking. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] the question if you did not hear it was when do we start moving against the communist party of china. That is, i think, if you look across the political spectrum theres a view that china is a malign actor and no consensus as to what to do. I think when you start to look at there are a lot of Democratic Party candidates who have criticized drums china policies and terrorists but if you look at the establishment of the Democratic Party with Speaker Pelosi and majority leader schumer they are on full board with what the president is doing and i think that shows a remarkable acceptance of the view that china is a faux and adversary i call it an enemy because in may of this year they declared peoples war on us but putting that aside for the moment most people are starting to come to a much review of beijings intentions. Your question is when we start getting serious connect im not in the president s head but one can make the argument that he has identified china as americas enemy and will put it down. What we have not heard from jump is the reaganesque statement which i believe he should be making in which hes probably not in his nature to make but nonetheless he is doing things which could very well bring down the communist party because hes attacking their economy at precisely the wrong moment. China is going through a really difficult time with its economy and you can start to see this in any number of factors especially those that look at the Manufacturing Sector but even looking at consumption numbers chinese economy is falling fast. Here President Trumps tariffs come, tax on the Telecom Equipment manufacturer and also something president is doing which could have a material effect on the stability of chi china. People ask to the trumps tariffs causing problems in china and the answer is no but china is closing its own problems. Largely because president xis view on state domination of economy and the perception of totalitarian controls and none of this is working but what we are seeing is i think trumps policies are having a marginal effect at precisely the right time for what you want to do. And for what i want to do as well. I believe coexistence is not possible. As much as we would like it and we can be friends with 20 people and we will be friends with 20 people does not with the communist party of china around. In the back. Thank you. Im glad you mentioned to media predecessors [inaudible] my question is twofold. Do you believe the rules of government and our allies are responsible for conviction interest for incarceration and the second the only south korean president since the military and it was not nato corruption or charge gave his salary back to charity but still remains a popular [inaudible] first question is was being responsible for the impeachment and conviction of his predecessor . It sure looks like it. From all of the factors especially because of what moon is doing now i would have to say the answer is yes. With regard to lehman bach hes been quiet and tar it would be able to better answer the question but you have not heard his voice and that is going to be something that im sure moon fears because lee was as you pointed out a popular figure. [inaudible] gallup korea a few hours ago with his most recent poll which showed that moons Approval Rating was 40 , and historic low. Gallup korea is generally numbers that are higher than other surveys and moon is unpopular and part of it is because the appointment of [inaudible] which i think is a watershed moment and i dont know if moon would be impeached but that is of course what people in south korea are now rain so the situation in south korea is volatile but if you got, for instance, the conservative opposition doing well on april 15 then they very well may take revenge because as the question before talked about people believe moon is responsible for the unfair impeachment to and conviction of [inaudible] and there is bloodlust right now. The question i think can be better answered on the 16th of april of next year yes, sir. How much china is helping north korea in terms of our program connects. How much does north korea aid the Nuclear Weapon program. The answer is a lot. If you look and its there are a couple of things but we know theres been a transfer or substantial transfer of technology for north koreas missile program. For instance, the transporter directed launchers that they use for their mobile missiles came from china and we learned that at the big parade on april 15, 2012 the tao for the cannulate came from china and also the north korea is lost liquid fuel missiles in august 2016 they tested their first solid fuel and they had two other tests of solid fuel missiles quickly after that which were landbased in the first one was c based. The question is where did the North Koreans get solid fuel technology and there are two missile analysts, one from israel and one from texas who say the muscles that the North Koreans launched in august of 2016 and the two they launched in early 2017 looked to be very [inaudible] there is that. Of course, china has been supporting the north Korea Economy which allows the north to continue its Ballistic Missile and Nuclear Weapons program and have been wandering money for the North Koreans and you just we dont have time today to run through all the lists but the one thing that is important that people dont focus on is that theres always been this question that the chinese say North Koreans hate us so we dont have influence in pyongyang but it is true koreans hate the chinese and a half for two melania and they fought some the worst but the border has moved hundreds of miles in both directions. That does not mean the chinese dont have influence and staging pain, chinese ruler summoned kim jungun to north korea four straight times before they returned the visit. Thats an indication that went the chinese pulled the strength the North Koreans were jump and they may hate the chinese but they know that they have to obey. Chinese dont always seek the obedience but when they do the North Koreans comply. That shows you they cannot run a Ballistic Missile program and they cannot run their Weapons Program if they did not want it. Yes, sir. The demonstration in hong kong [inaudible] the question is i think the answer is no. But the protests in hong kong are doing Something Else which at least as important and that is they are changing the political calculus in taiwan. President xi believes the one country was really for hong kong as well and before these protests started to take get momentum on denying we had a Million People in the streets and the president of the one was not even going to be renominated by her party, the democratic progressive party. She was out and stone cold dead politically and more than an exaggeration but she was running again. She won the nomination of her party but today she is leaving in every poll in taiwan and her margin is not enormous and its a long time between september and 2019 in january of next year but by god shes leaving and everyone in taiwan is the reason shes eating is because of whats occurring in taiwan. The Campaign Platforms of the opposition have changed and a lot less aging friendly and that is a fact of that. The thing about hong kong though to step back from that. Hong kong is inspiring. You cant go to those limitations as we did and even read about them without being inspired by the grit and determination but the people i was most impressed by when we were there we werent there long but the one thing that came through that came through quickly was the humanity of people in hong kong. Thats inspirational. Yes, sir. [inaudible] a teach economics at a university. I want to comment on the Hong Kong Movement is that [inaudible]. About leadership . The question is that leadership in hong kong you dont have leaders in the protest and by the way to have leaders in the hong kong protest for a very simple reason and that is in 2014 they have a occupy central with love and peace demonstration for nine days. The Democratic Movement was the government bought off the leaders of that movement placated them so the protest ended. The demonstrators today both the older demonstrators and the younger ones just sort of thing well you know you dont need leaders. We are doing fine without them. In terms of south korea the one thing that struck me when we prepare a little while ago in the beginning of me or something was how disorganized and disunited the opposition in south korea was. I was thinking that even though moon was really unpopular that his party the Democratic Party of korea they could actually do very well on april 15 largely because the conservatives are more interested in fighting themselves then they are going after men so i dont give advice to Political Parties outside of the United States but if i did i would say that you guys have got to start to get together because if you dont we are just going to kill you. In the back over there. There was a comment on national tv that one unnoticed and a surprise me as well but china cannot feed itself. Can you comment on the significance of that and maybe give us some insight . The question was senator cotton mentioned that china could not feed itself and what are the implications of back . The senator is right and the senator is especially right now the pig population in china has been decimated by the african swine flu. Pork being the primary meet of chinese consumers, the chinese need to buy pork because they dont, they are able to raise enough themselves because they have lost 50 of the pig heard. A week ago china repealed additional tariffs on american pork and people were saying oh this is a goodwill gesture toward the trump administration. No, its not. These guys need to buy pork and one of the political problems right now in china is not how mean and nasty the communist party is, which is should he but one of the main political problems right now for the party is the price of food staples especially the price of pork. They cant feed themselves. Sort of changing. There are couple of things going on here. First of all china has three shortsighted policies put a lot of medals in the soil and so that has taken some of the Agricultural Land out of the cycle but also with growing prosperity you have people who have different the dive of the average chinese has been changing in connection with Economic Development so thats why you have more meat and you have more other things and Chinese People have traveled a lot. It has some really good french food and other stuff. The other big story in terms of chinese consumers of food is they dont trust their own food supply anymore. Chinese consumers will spend a lot to buy foreign food because they believe in us. He and they dont believe in the safety and the purity of their own food. Theres a lot of factors. No one factor is enough but you put all those factors together in china cannot feed itself and this is becoming with african swine flu a political problem for beijing at this moment. A question about the labor union in south korea. If and when the moon government loses in the april election next year wouldnt you think the labor union would create major discrepancies in the party . The question is about the labor unions in south korea and whatever happens april 15 of next year and do i think the labor unions would create disturbances in south korea . My sense is no largely because, and here i want to talk about it my sense is no largely because if you get smashed in an election which could very well happen on april 15, i think essentially they will be demoralized. But you know im not an expert on that. Yes,. [inaudible] i think you said communism is intrinsically wrong and any undertaking whatsoever. I know there are some small undertaking simulant pics. There also some very big things like chinas forced abortion policy. One chinese expert told me that plant Parenthood International is training the chinese even though they use this word choice this congress heres been subsidized by planned parenthood taxpayers. Then you have problems like chinese software. Thats obviously a very good idea but my own opinion is the Virginia State model probably has some foreignpolicy information that would probably give us the foreignpolicy more consistent with the principles. Im always skeptical about one country into systems of hong kong. The question as to the whole issue of operation with communist states. And i agree with your approach because its unfortunate that after four decades of trying to integrate beijing into the International System we have obviously failed people with Dennis Weaver and her rich tense strength in that hostile militant group and now threatens us and our friends and allies. I think that we have seen in recent weeks just so many examples in addition to the ones you talk about. We have seen so many other examples of the impossibility of cooperating with china. Just to give you one example everyone talks about Business Investment into china. What beijing is going to be doing is taking a social Credit System and extending it to corporate including foreign incorporates. The social Credit System is a nationwide program which rates every individual goal. They get a square which is constantly updated taste upon observable behaviors. For instance if you jaywalk your scores going to go down and if you say no something nice about xi jinping your scores going to go up. They are going to extend this to companies. We saw this wet aging will do to a company when it has the power to do so and that was Cathay Pacific in connection with the hong kong protest. Cathay pacific now has a new chairman and a new chief executive officer and they are now according to apple daily 200 vacancies that have been newlycreated. The reason why the personnel change over his beijing has tried to purge the airline of those people who are protesting or who protected protesters. For instance the ceo was canned because he refused to cooperate with china. He refused to turn over a list of cafe employees who had protested in hong kong. This is what aging is going to do once it has the ability. This is a question of disengagement. We would love to have American Companies involved in making money in china but you cant do that because one of the things thats going to happen beijing will weaponized them against us and they will go after those Companies Like they went after Cathay Pacific. We have a stock of Something Like 256 billion of investment in the peoples republic. We could very well lose that largely because what we are seeing. Its unfortunate that we are not driving this and if you want a graphic example of what can happen to an American Company as opposed to Cathay Pacific just look at what happened if fedex pilot who was detained because he had plastic pellets in his luggage. They have decided to go after it. That was clear six weeks ago in connection with the misdirection of some packages. They have made fedex and enemy and they are now holding an american as hostage. This is the way a militant communist state deals with foreign companies. We have got to understand what got to protect americans. You cant protect americans if they are in china. Its unfortunate that what you going to do . Congressional staff, any Congressional Staff . You are kidding. Thank you for coming. You mentioned hong kong [inaudible] [inaudible] or questions about hong kong human rights and 2017 which is currently i think it will help. I think the provisions are not Strong Enough and thats just me but the point is the protesters in hong kong see this as a symbolic act. They want that past and the way they want that past is even though it will hurt hong kongs economy they believe that anything that undermines the rule of the communist party going back to your point is good for them and by the way theres a lot of controversy in the United States about President Trumps tariffs p. M. Posed under section 31 of the trade at the 1974. Controversial here, not controversial among people who protest in hong kong. They say its controversial in the sense that they want those tariffs higher but the point is they want the United States to show its resolve in this and to do it in ways which we might think are just symbolic but for them are incredibly important because they want to support. Two sundays ago, three sundays ago now you had protested at the u. S. Consulate in hong kong. There were 1000 american flags on that day outside of our consulate. Thank you very much. [applause] gordon thank you so much and by the way your web site for people that wanted to get on gordon chang. Com. I want to make one quick announcement. Thank you so much. It was an outstanding presentation. I wanted to mention there is quite a few people here that are members of the north korean freedom coalition. Probably the most important things the Defense Forum foundation does is we have the honor of cheering the freedom coalition. If you want to join us on tuesday, tuesday is September September 24. September 24 is the anniversary of when china became a signatory at the Refugee Convention which obligates its not too foreseeable against their will back to the country where they will be persecuted. Ill let people know about this about the situation but china has been repatriating forcefully sending North Koreans men women and children back to north korea knowing they will certainly 100 . Tortured, 100 the detained and in some cases executed. So on september 24 where organizing worldwide demonstration to show up the Chinese Embassy to stop this illegal inhumane and brutal activity. If you want to join us we are going to assemble in front of the chinese tv for demonstration in d. C. At 4 10 and then well we will proceed to the Chinese Embassy for a vigil. I do want to mention that to you because we will be singing the same songs that the hong kong protesters are singing. People will be doing this all over the world in solidarity with the people of hong kong. One final point i want to make is this ties in together. I just remember 2008 olympics. There were so many, it doesnt matter if you are a leftist or rightist in the United States everybody was supposed to beijing getting the olympics. The argument was oh this will be great because they will open up and they will become more open. This is helping chart china to reform and open up and that is one of many lies about trade with china because it had done nothing to help the people of china. Communist party china has benefited from all of this and thats when the persecution of the refugees became even more severe because china did not want the International Community to see their horrific things they were doing to men women and children who escaped north korea. Want to thank you all again for being here and if we can add one more round of applause. Thank you. [applause] if we dont tell our own stories others will tell them for us and they wont have the same care and concern that we do what happens in this is an important thing for all of us. Im a privacy advocate and it was very hard. It was actually harder to tell the story, to tell my story than it was to come forward and actually risk my freedom and potentially my life to tell the world about everything thats going on. And this was the hottest summer on record. We have never had so little art dixie eyes. We are using huge swaths of the amazon. We have lost much of the Great Barrier reef. These are major features of our planet, the ark, the amazon, the great terrier reef. And we are as my friend Bill Mckibben says losing them. Everyone is looking at the chinese economics and measurement and the white house was very successful in highlighting the threat. They issued a report with a stunning title called chinas economic aggression. There was a huge policy fight with the beer crowd saying oh we cant say economic aggression but when you read the report you understand why. [inaudible conversations] good evening everyone. My name i
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