Lawmakers that have criminal investigations ongoing with investigations that go from homicide to fraud to money laundering. A long list of crimes. People say they should be unseated instead of having the former president. Anchor top u. S. Election officials have released a statement describing the president ial vote as the most secure in u. S. History. Theres no evidence of ballots being changed or lost. More republican politicians are breaking with donald trump over his refusal to cooperate with president elect joe biden. Ethiopias Prime Minister has declared victory in the Northern Region of tigre where the federal government is battling local forces. A growing humanitarian crisis with thousands displaced across the border. Amnesty International Says hundreds of civilians of died. More than 90 people including a sixmonthold baby have died off of libyas coast in the past two days and attempted wrote boat crossings to europe. A search operation is underway after 74 people drowned on thursday after leaving the libyan port. The u. S. Top Infectious Disease expert says the country can avoid another coronavirus lockdown if people get serious about social distancing and wearing masks. Anthony faucher for vigilance during the wait for vaccines which he predicts could be in april. On wednesday, the u. S. Saw its highest number of daily deaths since may. Texas has passed one million confirmed cases with california expected to follow suit. You can follow the latest on all of the stories we are covering by logging onto our website, updated through the day. More news in a halfhour. Next, inside story. Stay with us. The opposition has left the building. Hong kongs prodemocracy legislators resign en masse to protest against the removal of colleagues deemed unpatriotic. Is this the end of political dissent in the semi autonomous chinese territory . This is inside story. Anchor hello and welcome to the program. A mass walkout is raising new concerns about democracy in hong kong. 15 opposition politicians stepped down after the dismissal of colleagues considered a threat to chinas National Security. Beijing says the resignation is a farce and a direct challenge to its authority over the former british colony. The u. K. Is accusing china of breaking his promise to preserve the citys economy. Hong kongs legislature has effectively been left with no political opposition. Adrian brown reports. Reporter hong kongs Legislative Assembly was choir than usual on thursday. Almost a quarter of its lawmakers have resigned or been disqualified. Staging whats likely to be their last protest. The chinese characters say hong kongs leader carrie lam has brought calamity to the territory and its people, she will stink for 10,000 years. The slogan was displayed by democratic lawmakers who must now give up their office by the end of the month. I will keep fighting for democracy of hong kong. We will never surrender. We will hang together with all the hong kong people and civil society. To fight against the dictatorship. Reporter this is what chinas leaders want to stamp out. Lawmakers behaving badly. Those from the democratic camp accused of being the main culprits. Chinas government has condemned the mass resignation of almost all hong kongs opposition as a farce with only themselves to blame for their downfall, says the soul hong kong delegate to chinas most powerful political body. What china has been doing is based on the constitution and basic law. Everything should be done in accordance with the law. We cannot badmouth one country, to systems in the Chinese Government. Reporter hong kongs legislature is set to become little more than a rubberstamp parliament. Dissent outside the chamber will likely continue. What does this mean . This means continuing instability. You can push it down with the police. You can push it down with arrests. Reporter reporter it reemerges. Its not clear what this means for elections supposed to have been held two months ago. Now pushed back until september next year because of covid19. On thursday, chinese officials in hong kong warned that legislators who resign or have been disqualified should not be eligible to stand in that pole. Wednesdays shakeup of Parliament Comes four months after chinas government imposed a sweeping National Security law on the territory. Some critics call it draconian. In spite of continuing international criticism, chinas leadership remains confident and defiant. Al jazeera, hong kong. Anchor lets bring in our guests from hong kong. Emily lau, former chairperson of the Democratic Party of hong kong. An author and conservative columnist from new jersey. Joining us from hong kong is a journalist and author of several books on the relationship between hong kong and china. Welcome to each of you. Let me start with you, emily. How much is this going to reshape hong kongs Political Landscape . Very much. Some of the peoe that ive spoken to are saying that things are going to get a lot more worse. So i think we have to fasten our seatbelts. It seems beijing, the administration of carrie lam, they dont give it about Public Opinion or internationally. They are hellbent on cracking down on dissent. Now that the democrats have left the Legislative Council, because we have the pandemic and social distancing rules, people cannot turn out to march in huge numbers. Theres a lot of pentup feeling of anger and frustration. Concern. I think things are going to get worse. We are ready. Dont think we have thrown in the towel. We are ready. We will continue with the struggle. Things could turn nasty. Anchor how much does all this damage hong kongs reputation in the world as an open city, as a bastion for freedom of speech and the rule of law . Look, this is part of the process. Weve heard the National Security law excuse me. Clamp down on teachers. Books banned from libraries. Hong kong lives and dies by its reputation as a place where there is rule of law, predictability, and there was. Once that disappears or is eroded, hong kong becomes a much lesser place. It does not become the ideal place to locate International Businesses or become a Free International center. Its quite serious. That is putting it mildly in terms of consequences. Anchor the United States has said that china flagrantly violated hong kongs aton ami after the ousting of these lawmakers. The u. S. Is also warning against further sanctions in china. The relationships have been at a low point for a while now. How much more does that strain that relationship . This could strain the relationship substantially, especially if the Top Administration starts to designate more individuals under the hong kong autonomy act. It could designate he is undermining hong kong autonomy. Indeed, if the u. S. Imposes the banking sanctions, that could sever the relationship between the United States and china. Anchor i want to ask you to expand more on your previous answer. With regard to the new resolution passed by beijing, how much easier now does it become to quash dissent in hong kong . To quash dissent among politicians, elected politicians is very easy. Now they have all left the council. Some are predicting that none of them would be allowed to stand as candidates again. Carrie lam postponed the Legislative Council election meant for september this year. To september of next year. Maybe even beyond that. We dont know whether the election will be held. I think many people are very pessimistic. Thinking that it would be very difficult if not impossible to get back into the legislature. Also, they are thinking that beijing may also crackdown on the local levels. The district councils. Because of the huge victory in the election last november. Many of the councils are dominated by the democrats. Theres concern that they may even try to oust these elected district counselors as well. It is very alarming. Thats why i said britain, the former colonial power, and our friends in the International Community, we hope they will speak out. People will say, they make statements or do other things. That would not change. I think its much better for the International Community to speak out for us than to have no noise at all. Anchor there are many who are calling this effectively the end of the one country, two systems in hong kong. Do you believe that is the case now . If so, what happens Going Forward . I think when you have diminished a town ami to the extent that elected officials in hong kong can be dismissed in beijing, when youve diminished authority where the chief executive has to even go to beijing for instructions on how to conduct the Economic Policy of hong kong, the level of a town ami that is left to the Hong Kong Government is very small indeed. Theres a very important proviso. Hong kong is coming to a very different place from the rest of the mainland. Im speaking from hong kong. There is still a high degree of levity in hong kong. It is being eroded. The differences between the two entities, which were supposed to be kept apart, is being eroded as a place which is breathtaking. There is still a difference to some extent. Anchor from your perspective, where does the u. S. China relationship go in a joe Biden Administration. Do you believe things are poised to improve or will they continue to deteriorate . I think that every new occupant in the white house gives china a grace period to develop cooperative relationships. Every new president things they can do better than the previous one. There will be a time when the Biden Administration will try to cozy up to beijing. I dont think that it will work. Theres a fundamental difference. Chinas regime is committing crimes against amenity. It is stealing hundreds of billions of dollars of u. S. Intellectual property. It is challenging the u. S. And its global comments. This is not a relationship that is going to work. It should get worse. We should not be tolerating chinas on the people behavior. Anchor when it comes to resignations, there are some analysts who say that mass resignations actually remove democracy activists access to the Legislative Council. There are other analysts who say that had the opposition lawmakers stayed, they would have been perceived as lending legitimacy to beijings new resolution and the dismissal of the four lawmakers. Did they have their own difficulties. Of course. There are people in hong kong with very different views, even the people who support the prodemocracy camp. So way it is a controversial decision. If you look at the way things have developed, even if the 15 decided not to leave, they may be kicked out. Could be kicked out quite soon. They will continue to filibuster. They want to delay the process. So that these terrible legislation on giving the right to vote to People Living in the area, this big reclamation of the island, they want to stop those things. Thats why they are filibustering. Also, the administration would not have dialogue with them. If they continue that behavior, even if they stayed on, im sure the administration and the probeijing legislatures will kick them out. I dont think they had much alternatives. The thing about it is, theres a lot of disagreement. The way forward is to have engagement, to have dialogue. The beijing regime feels, we will not talk to these people. These people try to react like this. They say, we will kill you dead. Kick you out. Anchor the Legislative Council will be left now with only probeijing politicians. What does that mean Going Forward . Will it make it easier for lawmakers to be able to pass laws that are favored by beijing . Reporter oh yes. Obviously, that is so. I would add to what emily just said. All this filibustering would have delayed legislation going through. The way the system has been built, there is a majority for the prochina camp. I dont actually think this is all about improving the work of the legislature. This is about delegitimizing any form of opposition. I think thats the Crucial Point here. Total intolerance. Emily has just said, theres no dialogue with the democrats. That is absolutely true. It goes further than that. Beijing is saying, you cant demonstrate on the streets. You cant take part in elections. If you write things in a newspaper we dont like, you will be arrested. Its much more widespread. This is part of that process. Very important part of the process. It is a much bigger process of saying, opposition in hong kong is no longer legal. Anchor any guesses as to what we might see from Donald Trumps administration towards china until joe biden get sworn in . We will see the Trump Administration continuing the policies of the last year and a half. Really, he should do that. Largely because china has been attacking representative governments in hong kong, snuffed it out. I think beijing now feels emboldened. It will go after the u. S. Even harder than it has in the past. Over the course of the election, china has been attacking, not only donald trump, also the form of americas representative governance. Theyve been attacking our democracy. Now they feel they have gotten more opportunity to do so. I would think both trump and President Biden are going to defend the american republic. That means we are going to see more friction. Anchor theres a growing generational divide between the older and younger members of the prodemocracy movement. There has been a between those generations that has been building for some time now. Is it possible to bridge that gap . If so, how is that done . Of course, we are willing. We in the Democratic Party are willing to talk to people of all ages. Its not a question of us shunning them. For those who dont want to talk to us, we cannot force them. Of course, my party does not support independence. We do not support using violence to struggle. We are willing to talk to them. At the beginning of next month, its my partys annual general meeting. We will elect new leadership. Some of our very young members are fighting to be elected as chair and vice chair of the party. Its good. Let these young people come forward. Maybe they can talk to other young people better. I have many mentees. I know a lot of young people. I dont know. You seem to have the impression that its a very big divide. We talk to each other all the time. Sometimes, they like to criticize us. Some of them like to replace us, which is ok. Democracy is about competition. If you are better than us, we will fade away. Anchor let me ask you the same question. That divide between younger members and older members of the prodemocracy movement. Can that generational gap be bridged . Its an interesting topic. There was a lot of backlash last year in the beginning of the movement. A lot of the younger demonstrators thought that the traditional damage democrats had not been up to par. What has happened, much more recently, they are now all sharing a common fate. The frontline protesters who were arrested last year during the height of the demonstrations are now being joined in court by the traditional older democrats. They are all in the same boat. This divide there was a divide. It has been narrowed by the actions of the Hong Kong Government and its masters in beijing. They are putting everybody in the same camp. I dont think that theres a very big chasm between the two groups. You know, one thing is that the younger generation, who were taking the lead on the streets, have a tendency to want more violent action, at least more participation on the streets rather than Council Chambers or what have you. Now, that form of opposition has been shut off by the administration. They themselves, by their action, have forced these camps together. Its makes ordinary irony. Anchor are there officials in the u. S. Government or Chinese Government that are concerned about how bad the relationship has gotten between the two countries . Are there steps by any members of the government, of either country, to try to make that relationship better . Just talking about the u. S. , of course it is concerned about the relationship with china. There is more friction. There are more disagreements. People here are starting to understand. Beijing uniting the two branches of the younger and older protesters. The same thing is happening in the u. S. China is delegitimizing its friends. You have the Henry Kissinger school. They talk about the disaster of that. We are not driving this. It is china that is driving this. With regard to whats happening in china, god only knows. They are determined to snuff out any opposition, just like he snuffed out opposition in the Legislative Council. Anchor are there any avenues remaining for legislators, residents to express dissent in hong kong at this stage . Well, as stephen just said, we are not exactly like Mainland China yet. If we were, i dont think i would be having this conversation with you. In the past 12 hours, i have spoken to quite a number of foreign journalists and diplomats. I dont think this thing would be that possible in Mainland China. I dont know. People kept asking me when i will be arrested. I think that we just have to use whatever space, freedom that we have to continue to express ourselves. I will never allow myself to be intimidated into silence. Thats why im talking to you. Tomorrow, get up at 6 00 to talk to the australians. I think there are people like that. At the end of the day, you pay your price. If you look around the world, there are so many people fighting for democracy, human rights. They are paying a much heavier price than we do. They have to dodge bullets. They get arrested, tortured, killed. Right now, we are not as bad as that yet. Anchor it looked to me like you were nodding along. Did you want to add to the point she was making . I would. What is now going to happen is a long time of passive resistance. The sort of thing you saw prior to the breakup of the soviet union at the end of the 1980s. You did not see until the last moment big demonstrations on the streets. You saw these minor but still alive acts of resilience. Let me give you an example. When the police launched a big rate on the apple daily newspaper, the only mainstream newspaper which supports the democracy movement, the next day, people went out and bought shares of the company in the thousands, hundreds of thousands. They bought the newspaper and saw sat around hong kong reading the newspaper. It was an act of defiance. We will not see largescale demonstrations. The movement will be kept alive by these sorts of things. How much even that will be cracked down on, im not sure. That may well also become a dangerous thing to do in the future. Anchor does the u. S. Now expect to see other politicians or groups in hong kong being targeted . If so, how quickly will that happen . I dont know what u. S. Officials think. Im sure they are not very optimistic about the direction of things. Beijing has closed off all the political process. In terms of what people may expect, i think this is an insurgency. Eventually, we are going to see largescale demonstrations in hong kong. Smallscale roses tense that stephen was talking about. This is going to be a contest that will go on for quite some time. The they are determined to control hong kong. He will put stephen and emily in jail if thats what it takes. He will do that. They are very brave right now. I think u. S. Officials are externally concerned with whats going on. That is bipartisan. Not just President Trump or joe biden. It is across the political spectrum. Anchor we will have to leave the conversation there. Thanks to all of our guests. Thank you for watching. You can see the program again any time by visiting our website. For further discussion, go to where facebook page. You can also join the conversation on twitter. For me and the whole team here, bye for now. Man hollywood is the throbbing, beating heart of commercial entertainment, but, yo, South Central is the soul, baby. [jazz music playing] this kind of scene, it has deep roots in South Central. Horace tapscott started the pan afrikan peoples arkestra in 1961 to fill a void of arts in e black community. The ark has had many different iterations. I am currently the leader of thpan African Peoples arkestra. I was raised in the ark. I literally am ahild of the ark. I have a
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