Peter Lewis: Asia business correspondent on 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists sentenced under national security law

45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have been sentenced to four to 10 years in prison.

They were prosecuted under its 2020 national security law for their roles in an unofficial primary election, which prosecutors said their aim was to paralyse the city’s government and force its leader to resign by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block government budget.

Meanwhile, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping has been travelling South America talking up free trade and globalisation in the region.

Asia business correspondent Peter Lewis joined Heather du Plessis-Allan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hither dubis Ellen right with us.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Right now, We've got Peter Lewis Asia Business correspondent, Hey, Peter.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Good evening, Header Peter.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
How was Hong Kong reacting to these democracy leaders being jailed?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Well, it depends who you ask, really. I mean, obviously
the government and the government supporters say that the Hong
Kong forty seven, there was actually forty five of them
convicted out of the forty seven, we're trying to subvert
Hong Kong and overthrow the governments. Now, what they will
say and what their supporters will say is it wasn't

(00:32):
overthrowing the governments. It was trying to win the election.
And remember what their crime was. It was basically they
held a primary election to decide which of their candidates
was best place to stand in the district elections, and
then whoever won that primary would then gone on to
be the candidate in those elections. And obviously they were

(00:53):
trying to win that election and ultimately replace the governments.
There was a real chance at the time that they
could have won enough seats to certainly control the ledge
cod Now the thing about that is that actually under
the Hong Kong Basic Law, which it affected Hong Kong's
constitution that came into effect when China handed it back

(01:14):
to when England handed Britain handed it back to China.
This was perfectly legal. These types of elections have been
held in the past. The basic law stipulates that a
party that wins the election and forced the government to
have to resign by not approving its budget, and that's

(01:35):
exactly what they intended to do. But nevertheless they were
found guilty of subversion. And the other notable thing about
it is the way the trial was held. The forty
seven were denied the right to a trial by jury,
which would be the normal case here in Hong Kong,
and instead three judges heard the case. Now, those three

(01:58):
judges were and picked by the Hong Kong Chief Executive,
John Lee Site and his predecessor were handpicked by the
governments in effect. And also they were denied some of
the representation that they wanted, the legal representation that they wanted.
And that's one of the features of the Jimmy La

(02:20):
case that's going on at the moment. He was denied
the opportunity to have his choice of barrister represent him
who was from the overseas because he was seen as
a national security risk. So a lot of worrying things
about this case overall.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, totally, Hey tell me something about ugeneping. So is
he pitching himself as kind of like the good guy
in the world at the moment.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Absolutely, He's been in South America, he was at the
APEX Summit of the G twenty summit in Rio. Here's
an effect presenting himself as the champion of globalization and
free trade. He's sort of stepping into the void that
the US has left or will leave when Donald Trump
arrives in office. And he's been basically talking up the

(03:07):
advantages of free trade. He's saying that globalism can't be unwound.
It's absolutely essential to stop the fragmentation of the world economy.
Now part of this, of course, is because of China's economy,
which is struggling at the moment and what it doesn't want.
The thing that Chiging Ping most fears is that if

(03:28):
Donald Trump imposes tariffs on exports of Chinese goods, other
nations might follow suits, particularly in emerging markets. And there
are some countries in South America, like Chile, like Brazil
that have also imposed tariffs on Chinese goods because they're
worried about the flood of imports there. Well, that's a

(03:48):
trend that chi Jing Pig absolutely doesn't want to see
because it will be disastrous for China. So he is
a meeting with all sorts of leaders in South America.
He himself as a free trade person and wants the
global sealth countries in the global selth to support him

(04:08):
in that arrangement.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
And what about this business with the North Korean troops
in Ukraine, I mean or not in Ukraine rather than
Russia fighting Ukraine. This must be incredibly uncomfortable for China,
isn't it?

Speaker 1 (04:20):
It is, and he is saying absolutely nothing about it.
He was asked several times in press conferences while he
was in Rio what his spance was on that, and
has said nothing official about it, and Chinese state media
have said nothing about it either in their press releases.
But nevertheless, it's an issue that is very uncomfortable for Jiujinping.

(04:44):
What he did say was that he told the presidents
of South Korea that things have changed on the Korean peninsula,
but he said that Beijing. He said, Beijing will continue
to play a constructive role in its own way. To
end the conflict. Now, he didn't say quite what his
own way was, and certainly most people didn't envisage that,

(05:06):
including North Korean troops being in Ukraine. But the problem
for him is is this is an issue where in
contrast to what he's trying to do on trade, he
has been very much sidelined. This is all down really
to the US and EU and NATO in terms of
what happens here next. Has really very little that President

(05:27):
G can do to influence the outcome. But it does
appear he has less sway over North Korea. I mean,
many people thought that he will be able to dissuade
King choremen from doing this doesn't appear to have been
the case. And it seems to be Russia that has
more sway over North Korea at the moments, which is
certainly something that President G won't appreciate. But he's not

(05:50):
saying in public what his thoughts are on this and
what is doing behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, fascinating. Hey, thanks very much, Peter, I really appreciate it.
Peter Lewis Asia Business correspondent will speak to you in
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