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May 14, 2021 - Epoch Times
11:29
‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’—Emily Lau on Communist China Stripping Hong Kong’s Freedoms
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How are things in Hong Kong now, from your perspective?
Well, of course, things are terrible and very difficult.
And there are members of my party and many, many more activists who have lost their liberty.
I mean, as we speak, they are all locked up in jail and they have not yet been properly charged.
But the court refused to give them bail.
And our fear is that many, many of these people are going to be in detention indefinitely for months or for years.
So it is very, very distressing.
Of course, it's a very heavy pressure on their family and friends and also on members of the public.
And also, it seems, the arrest...
And the prosecution, they're not going to stop.
More people could get arrested in the coming days and weeks and months.
And people have warned me many times that I could be a target.
So it is very, very stressing.
And then coming Monday...
There will be another big trial.
There will be 10 defendants.
Some are actually already locked up.
And others, like my colleague, Albert Ho, Xin Chong Kai, all members of my party, I guess they are going to be locked up as well.
And the police.
Today, the Commissioner of Police came out to talk about fake news, wishing maybe to arrest journalists or close down newspapers.
And a big target, of course, is Apple Daily.
And today, of course, there's a lady journalist from the Epoch Times who was attacked quite brutally and taken to casualty in the hospital.
And I think many journalists were flabbergasted.
How can you attack a journalist like that in broad daylight?
And then, of course, their printing press had been attacked not too long ago.
So people in journalism, people in politics, activists, people are very, very alarmed and very scared.
So you are looking.
You're looking at a very, very anxious, very apprehensive person.
And very unhappy city.
And because of COVID, we're not allowed together in public.
And so people cannot have a chance to even peacefully express their views.
So, I mean, you're looking at a very, very unhappy, very angry city.
Emily, these are very dark times, absolutely.
And let's go through some of the things a little deeper that you just talked about.
Let's start with actually with press freedom.
So you recently spoke with the head of the Forbes Correspondents Club on your show.
And also, you know, you've been kind of, of course, watching the state of press freedom.
I mean, you started back in 1984.
Of course, you were a journalist on Hong Kong in very, very different times.
So, how is the state of press freedom in Hong Kong right now?
Well, I think there may be a little bit of press freedom, but not much more.
And in terms of our ranking, you know, the global ranking, we used to rank up very high, and now we just kept falling and falling.
And as I said, Many journalists are under a lot of pressure because many news organizations are now owned by pro-communist business people.
So their top priority is not to upset Beijing.
And so they would tell their journalists what things they should not cover.
And of course, some journalists themselves are worried So they practice self-censorship.
And then, of course, not too long ago, you saw hundreds of policemen marching into the Apple Daily.
And then, of course, Jimmy Lai, the owner, has lost his liberty.
Who knows how long Jimmy will be locked up?
And so people are very, very anxious.
And then yesterday, when Keith Richburg, the president of the Foreign Correspondents Club, and he is also the director of the Hong Kong University's Media Studies Center, he teaches journalism.
And he said that, you know, Journalists are under tremendous pressure, and he particularly singled out Radio Television Hong Kong, which of course is a government department, but also a public broadcaster.
And many things have happened to RTHK because they have a new director who's not a broadcaster, just an administrative officer.
And many of their programs have been dropped, including one that interviewed me and others.
And the director said, no, we can't show that.
Drop it and drop that.
Drop so many programs.
And then people resigned and people were fired.
As Keith said yesterday, a journalist was fired for asking tough questions of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.
So RTHK is under tremendous pressure, but others, others too.
But Keith said he will continue to tell his students that they must not give up, they must try to do their best.
But he thinks that now journalism in Hong Kong is probably like some of the other very authoritarian countries.
And so we are suffering this death by a thousand cuts.
And so it is a very, very grim prospect.
Well, you know, one thing that just struck me, you know, when we first met in person, when I was in Hong Kong, I guess at the end of 2019, there were so many journalists from outside.
There were many journalists covering the protests inside and foreign journalists.
When coronavirus hit, this completely changed.
And at the moment, it seems like it's very difficult, actually, to come into Hong Kong at all.
And perhaps as a journalist, is COVID kind of being weaponized here as a way to prevent external coverage of what's happening there?
Yes, I think Keith mentioned that yesterday, and he did say that because of COVID, and there are very heavy restrictions on who can enter Hong Kong, like there are restrictions on other countries.
So many people cannot come.
But of course, they do it by Zoom or whatever, by other means.
And so they continue to operate.
But I think one big problem is that many Hong Kong people who used to talk to the media, whether it's local or foreign, and now they are not talking.
So even if the journalists can come to Hong Kong, even if you can come to Hong Kong, you probably find that very few people are willing to talk to you.
So that is the atmosphere.
And of course, we can't blame people.
We have to understand the pressure they are under.
Because if they get the knock on the door at 5 a.m., No one is going to be able to help them.
No one.
If I get this knock on the door tomorrow morning, you can't help me.
Nobody can help me.
So we understand why some people say, oh, come on, please delete my name.
I no longer exist.
Don't call me anymore.
And if they say that, you have to understand that No, absolutely.
And frankly, you know, Emily, this is one of the reasons I think I took so long in trying to reach out to you because, you know, basically I'm frankly concerned a bit about you.
But tell me, what is it that makes you feel, I guess, the courage to do this interview, frankly?
I don't know.
Actually, I've been doing quite a number of interviews, so I'm not just doing this one.
And I just feel that...
I just would not allow myself to be intimidated into silence.
But neither do I think that I'm okay.
I'm untouchable.
No way!
But we have a saying in Chinese, well, you all gotta die once.
So, I mean, if you're prepared for that, and then if we look at the suffering and the pressure of other activists, whether it is in other countries, in mainland China and all that, and their courage and their perseverance, then we say, gee whiz, we are not lesser beings.
And of course, we don't want to be persecuted.
We don't want to be tortured or killed.
But still, I mean, we have to stand up with dignity to defend what we believe in, but to take the consequences.
That I know.
So you've just watched a clip from an American Thought Leader's interview, and as you probably know, I pour my heart and soul into these.
YouTube has been censoring some entirely mainstream videos lately, including things like Florida Governor DeSantis' coronavirus roundtable.
We've even had some of our own videos removed from YouTube for no clear reason whatsoever.
And frankly, I don't find this to be appropriate.
I don't find this to be acceptable.
I don't want to be sitting around thinking what YouTube may or may not feel like they want to censor.
And beyond that even, YouTube has demonetized us for the past two months.
Ostensibly, we're working to resolve the issue, but our hopes are kind of fading when it comes to this.
So what is our response to this?
Well, we've started our own platform, Epoch TV. Now, Epoch TV is the premium Epoch Times video platform.
It's got American Thought Leaders, but it also has The Larry Elder Show and Crossroads with Joshua Phillip and a number of other programs.
So you can get Epoch TV for this low introductory rate of $4.99 a month.
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You're supporting uncensored news.
You're supporting groundbreaking investigative reporting.
And you're supporting these deep dive interviews that I love doing so much.
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