Update (Aug. 6): Writing at The National Interest, Gordon C. Chang says “it’s now a revolution.”
In an especially tone-deaf press conference Monday, Lam, standing next to eight grim-faced ministers, made no further concessions, either symbolic or substantive, as she struck all the wrong notes if she was trying to calm the situation in her embattled city. Her stern and sometimes ominous words—Lam warned the territory was on the “path of no return”—seemed aimed at an audience of one: Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping.
Xi, it appears, will keep Lam in power. Her resignation, demanded by many, would undoubtedly trigger calls for universal suffrage for the election of a successor. Lam was “elected” in 2017 by the Election Committee, a body of only twelve hundred members in a city of more than seven million. Due to various mechanisms, the resulting “small-circle election” effectively gives Beijing a decisive voice in choosing the chief executive.
(June 26 post) Last week, nearly 2 million Hong Kong residents gathered to protest a newly proposed extradition bill. Helen Raleigh, senior writer at the Federalist, joins the show to explain the current extradition agreements held between Hong Kong and China, why so many in Hong Kong are angry about the bill and how the extradition bill, if passed, would threaten Hong Kong’s rule of law. After that, Acton’s Trey Dimsdale is joined by Anne Rathbone Bradley, affiliate scholar of economics at Acton, and Adam MacLeod, professor of law at Faulkner University. Together, they break down Kisor v. Wilkie, a case currently pending in the Supreme Court.
Check out additional resources for this podcast:
If Hong Kong Passes Extradition Bill, The Freest City In Asia Will Slowly Die
How Christianity Is Helping Keep Hong Kong’s Stunning Protests A Peaceful Beacon To The World
Masks, cash and apps: How Hong Kong’s protesters find ways to outwit the surveillance state
A draft bill would allow Hong Kong to hand suspects to China’s police
The Boring Supreme Court Case That Could Help Make America Great Again
Preview of Oral Arguments in Kisor v. Wilkie
Kisor v. Wilkie [SCOTUSbrief]: Short video featuring Adam White
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Mourning the Notre-Dame cathedral inferno; Rev. Robert Sirico on education
F.A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom; The media vs. ‘Unplanned’
Rev. Robert A. Sirico on the reality of socialism; Interview with a Venezuelan dissident
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