710: Umbrellas Down
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When I first heard about the new Chinese national security law that went into effect this month in Hong Kong, the person I wanted to talk to about it is this Hong Kong protester that I will call Jennifer. Jennifer is somebody who I and a couple of other producers from our show spent time with and went to protest with last fall. So many things that she said to us back then would now be illegal under the new Chinese law. In fact, any criticism of China or the Hong Kong government, anybody calling for democracy in Hong Kong, anywhere in the world, could be prosecuted under this law. Kong for the United States to support the protesters, which Jennifer did, that is illegal. If the Chinese decide that talking to reporters like us is collusion with foreigners, that would be illegal. Chaining at protests about Hong Kong independence has been declared illegal, damaging subway stations is categorized as terrorism with severe penalties. Books by activists have been removed from public libraries. People have been arrested for carrying pro-independence flags, China is setting up its own separate national security apparatus in Hong Kong to handle these cases, maximum penalty life in prison. What we're going to do today on our program is play you the episode that we made last fall about the Hong Kong protesters where we tried to explain the feelings and the ideals behind the protests. And then at the end of the hour, we will play you the interview that I just did with Jennifer this month on the second full day of the new law went into effect about the law. If you're listening to the podcast version of our show and you heard this episode when we first put it out in the fall and you just want to jump to the new part with Jennifer, the new interview, it starts around 14 minutes from the end. Okay. Here's the episode. It's nearly two in the afternoon when we reach Jennifer's family's apartment. She's just gotten up. She's still eating a very breakfast. I'll finish my noodles and I'll start packing. With my co-worker, Manuel Berry, and we're at a quiet working class neighborhood in the part of Hong Kong, it's called New Territories. It's a Sunday, so Jennifer's getting ready to do what she does every weekend, what she did yesterday in fact, that's why she slept late, she's going to a protest with a little backpack. So this is the bag that I usually bring. So this is a maroon bag. It's a very small one. We have to keep everything light. So I always have a bottle of water and in many tissues, I have to bring a lot of tissues because we need to wipe our eyes when there is tear gas. And because I know how to do first aid, I always bring my first aid kit. The first aid kit is a little zip up bag with roller bandages and gauze and gloves and stuff to sterilize a wound. Jennifer started in the volunteer ambulance corps in seventh grade and has used all this stuff with demonstrations. She packs her wallet and her airpods. Because I have to listen songs.
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