yeah, i mean, well, china has blocked us from entering for some time in terms of doing research. but my point is that, you know, there is this serious threat, not just domestically, but china is really actively trying to undermine the global human rights system. because, you know, if you put yourself in the shoes of xijinping, you know, if somebody says, well, you know, why are you president of china? he can t say, well, the chinese people freely elected me. i mean, that s preposterous. so he has to say, well, you know, i m giving them prosperity and they ve given up their freedoms and they re happy with this. now, you know, we saw a massive refutation of that in the one part of china that was free to speak out. that was hong kong. you know, hundreds of thousands of people took to the street and said, no, we don t want the chinese communist party dictatorship, we want democracy. he also, xijinping, puts great emphasis on being received as a respectable leader by the rest of the
got that wrong? and i m particularly thinking about how you spoke out against china, and paraphrasing you slightly, described china as the greatest threat to global democracy. i mean, that put you on a collision course with beijing, didn t it? well, i mean, what i said is that, you know, china is the greatest threat to the global human rights system. i completely believe that. in fact, you know, when i went to hong kong to hold a press conference releasing a report where that was the thesis, they blocked me at the airport injanuary 2020 and sent me back to new york. maybe that s, maybe that s partly because you did some pretty amazing things. i mean, you tweeted a cartoon. ijust checked the timeline. and january 1st, 2020, i thinkjust before you got blocked at hong kong airport, you tweeted out a cartoon which portrayed the grim reaper dressed in the chinese flag where the stars had been rearranged into a swastika and where he was about to enter a door marked the world, having alread
in war crimes. he is pursuing a war crimes strategy. now that you ve finished your tenure at human rights watch and you can kind of look back over the three decades, do you think you got some things wrong? and do you think that what you ve just outlined as the responsibility to tread very carefully when it comes to being political, do you think you sometimes got that wrong? and i m particularly thinking about how you spoke out against china, and paraphrasing you slightly, described china as the greatest threat to global democracy. i mean, that put you on a collision course with beijing, didn t it? well, i mean, what i said is that, you know, china is the greatest threat to the global human rights system. i completely believe that. in fact, you know, when i went to hong kong to hold a press conference releasing a report where that was the thesis, they blocked me at the airport injanuary 2020 and sent me back to new york. maybe that s, maybe that s partly because you did some pretty amaz
and then expect to be allowed to enter hong kong to engage in research about the human rights situation in territory which is, of course, a sovereign part of china, it seems a somewhat strange way of going about your work. yeah, i mean, well, china has blocked us from entering for some time in terms of doing research. but my point is that, you know, there is this serious threat, not just domestically, but china is really actively trying to undermine the global human rights system. because, you know, if you put yourself in the shoes of xijinping, you know, if somebody says, well, you know, why are you president of china? he can t say, well, the chinese people freely elected me. i mean, that s preposterous. so he has to say, well, you know, i m giving them prosperity and they ve given up their freedoms and they re happy with this. now, you know, we saw a massive refutation of that in the one part of china that was free to speak out. that was hong kong. you know, hundreds of thousan
yeah, i mean, well, china has blocked us from entering for some time in terms of doing research. but my point is that, you know, there is this serious threat, not just domestically, but china is really actively trying to undermine the global human rights system. because, you know, if you put yourself in the shoes of xijinping, you know, if somebody says, well, you know, why are you president of china? he can t say, well, the chinese people freely elected me. i mean, that s preposterous. so he has to say, well, you know, i m giving them prosperity and they ve given up their freedoms and they re happy with this. now, you know, we saw a massive refutation of that in the one part of china that was free to speak out. that was hong kong. you know, hundreds of thousands of people took to the street and said, no, we don t want the chinese communist party dictatorship, we want democracy. he also, xijinping, puts great emphasis on being received as a respectable leader by the rest of the