U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he and Chinese President Xi Jinping “want to see it go well in Hong Kong” amid ongoing trade talks to end a bitter trade dispute between the two countries.”I have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Xi. We’re in the final throes of a very important deal, I guess you could say one of the most important deals in trade ever. It’s going very well but at the same time we want to see it go well in Hong Kong,” Trump said.Trump’s Oval Office remarks came as Washington waits to see if the president will sign legislation passed by the House and Senate to support Hong Kong protesters.The legislation has angered China, who has called it interference in an internal affair. Trump has been non-committal about whether he would sign the measure into law as he tries to close a deal with China to end the 16-month trade war.Trump did suggest, however, that the issues behind the unrest in Hong Kong would eventually be resolved.”I think that President Xi can make that happen,” Trump said. “I know him and I know he’d like to make it happen.”Trump raised questions about his commitment to standing up to defend freedoms in Hong Kong in August when he described the mass street protests there as “riots” that China must address.Trump again referred to “riots” on Friday, but he has also urged China to handle the protests humanely, while warning repeatedly of their impact on trade negotiations.Riot police stand guard as lawyer and newly elected district councillor arrive at the Polytechnic University to meet the left-over protesters in Hong Kong, Nov. 25, 2019.The U.S. legislation requires the U.S. State Department to certify at least annually that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy to justify favorable U.S. trading terms that have helped the semi-autonomous city maintain its position as a world financial center.The measure also threatens sanctions for human rights violations.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked at a Washington news conference Tuesday whether he expected Trump to approve the legislation.Pompeo said he did not want to “get out in front of what he will do before too long,” but added that the State Department would comply with whatever it was required to do by statute.Any veto by the president can be overridden by two-thirds votes in both the Senate and the House.The bill will automatically become law on Dec. 3 if Trump chooses to do nothing. 
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Pope Francis on Tuesday closed his visit to Japan by telling students at a Catholic university of the need to work toward a “hope-filled future” that is more inclusive by addressing the disconnects in society.In his address at Sophia University, the pope said he sensed in Japan a desire to create a more humane, compassionate and merciful society.”The university, focused on its mission, should always be open to creating an ‘archipelago’ capable of connecting realities that might be considered culturally and socially separate,” Pope Francis said.  “The marginalized would be creatively incorporated into the life and curriculum of the university in an effort to bring about an educational approach aimed at reducing distances and disconnects.”The pope also cited a “love for nature” as a typical aspect of Asian cultures and expressed a need to protect the planet.Earlier parts of his Japan visit focused on an anti-nuclear message.Pope Francis places a wreath during his visit to the Martyrs’ Monument at Nishizaka Hill, in Nagasaki, Japan, Nov. 24, 2019. (Vatican Media/­Handout via Reuters)The 82-year-old Argentine landed in Tokyo Saturday before traveling to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the sites where more than 100,000 people were killed instantly by U.S. bombs dropped at the end of World War II in 1945.In Nagasaki Sunday, Pope Francis called on political leaders to renounce nuclear weapons and abandon the arms race.”I ask political leaders not to forget that these weapons cannot protect us from current threats to national and international security,” he said.The pope has said it has long been a dream of his to visit Japan, and that he had longed to be sent there as a missionary more than 50 years ago. Out of the country’s 126 million residents, an estimated 440,000 are Catholic.Before traveling to Japan, the pope visited Thailand to preach a message of religious tolerance and peace. 
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A new leak of classified Chinese government documents has revealed how authorities are using a massive data collection program to target and detain an estimated one million ethnic minority Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang province.The trove of documents, which was obtained and published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), revealed the blueprints and tactics behind an intensifying campaign of intrusive surveillance, political and cultural indoctrination against Uighurs, Kazakhs and other Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang.FILE.- A guard tower and barbed wire fences are seen around a facility in the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China’s Xinjiang region, Dec. 3, 2018. This is one of a growing number of internment camps in Xinjiang.Rights groups have warned for years that China is systematically oppressing Uighurs and eradicating their culture and religious beliefs, and the new documents detail how authorities have pursued ideological “re-education” for an entire population.Uighurs and other Muslim minorities imprisoned inside the camps are scored based on how well they speak the dominant Mandarin and follow rigorous rules from bathing to using the toilet. Scores determine if they can leave.  The leaked internal documents and communications were obtained and published on Sunday.  This followed the leak of 400 pages of internal documents to The New York Times last week.FILE – Residents walk past a security checkpoint at the close of a open air market in Kashgar in western China’s Xinjiang region, Nov. 4, 2017. Authorities are using data-driven surveillance to impose a digital police state in Xinjiang.”We’re in 2019 and we’ve got over a million people in concentration camps in Xinjiang,” White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Saturday at an international security conference in Halifax. “That’s an outrage.””Those camps should be closed. They should be dismantled,” added O’Brien.”But it’s not just the camps. It’s the surveillance infrastructure that’s been built in the region tracking people through facial recognition, A.I., through electronic means. They’ve created an entire surveillance state in that province.”China responseChinese authorities have justified the extreme measures as necessary to counter what they claim to be “terrorism” and to ensure China’s national security.FILE.- A police station is seen by the front gate of the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center in Artux in western China’s Xinjiang region, Dec. 3, 2018.Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang refuted the new document leak, saying issues surrounding Uighur Muslims are “purely China’s internal affairs.””Certain media are trying to smear China’s counterterrorism and de-radicalization efforts in Xinjiang by despicably hyping up Xinjiang-related issues, but their attempts will not succeed. Stability, ethnic solidarity and harmony in Xinjiang are the best responses to such disinformation,” said Geng.Visa restrictionsLast month, the U.S. State Department announced visa restrictions on Chinese government and Communist Party officials believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the detention or abuse of Uighurs, Kazakhs, or other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.While no specific names of Chinese officials were mentioned, U.S. officials and congressional members had said President Donald Trump’s administration was considering sanctions against officials linked to the abuses on Muslims, including Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo.”If China has nothing to hide, it should allow truly independent human rights monitors immediate and unfettered access to Xinjiang — something it has steadfastly refused to do so far, despite repeated requests from Amnesty International and others,” the rights group’s campaign director for East Asia, Lisa Tassi, said in a statement Monday. 
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The Chinese government has detained more than a million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities for what it calls voluntary job training. But a newly revealed classified blueprint shows that the camps Beijing runs in China’s far west are instead secret centers for forced ideological and behavioral re-education.The confidential documents, leaked to a consortium of international journalists, lay out the Chinese government’s deliberate strategy to lock up minorities, most of whom are Muslims, to rewire their thoughts and even the language they speak.The documents stipulate watch towers, double-locked doors and blanket video surveillance “to prevent escapes.” They describe an elaborate scoring system that grades detainees on how well they speak the dominant Mandarin language, memorize ideology and adhere to strict rules on everything down to bathing and using the toilet.FILE.- A guard tower and barbed wire fences are seen around a facility in the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China’s Xinjiang region, Dec. 3, 2018. This is one of a growing number of internment camps in Xinjiang.They also show how Beijing is pioneering a new form of social control using data and artificial intelligence. With the help of mass surveillance technology, computers issued the names of tens of thousands of people for interrogation or detention in just one week, including university students and party officials who wouldn’t need vocational training.Taken as a whole, the documents give the most significant description yet of how the mass detention camps work in the words of the Chinese government itself.’Form of cultural genocide’Experts say they spell out a vast system that targets, surveils and grades entire ethnicities to forcibly assimilate them – especially Uighurs, a Turkic minority of about 10 million with their own language and culture.“They confirm that this is a form of cultural genocide,” said Adrian Zenz, a leading security expert in the far western region of Xinjiang, where many Uighurs live. “It really shows that from the onset, the Chinese government had a plan.”Zenz said the documents echo the aim of the camps as outlined in a 2017 report from a local branch of the Xinjiang Ministry of Justice: To “wash brains, cleanse hearts, support the right, remove the wrong.”’People’s War on Terror’China has struggled for decades to control Xinjiang, where hundreds, both Uighurs and Han Chinese, have died in terror attacks, reprisals and race riots. In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched what he called a “People’s War on Terror” in response to terror attacks carried out by radical Uighur militants.In late 2016, the crackdown intensified dramatically when Xi named Chen Quanguo, a hardline official transferred from Tibet, as Xinjiang’s new head. Most of the documents were issued in 2017.“Since the measures have been taken, there’s no single terrorist incident in the past three years,” said a written response from the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom. “Xinjiang is much safer….The so-called leaked documents are fabrication and fake news.”The statement said that religious freedom and the personal freedom of detainees was “fully respected” in Xinjiang.The documents came from an anonymous source, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists verified them by consulting experts, cross-checking content and comparing signatures. They consist of a notice with guidelines for the camps, four bulletins on how to use technology to target people, and a court case sentencing a local Uighur party official to 10 years in prison for telling colleagues not to say dirty words, watch porn or eat without praying.Issued to rank-and-file officials by the powerful Xinjiang Communist Party Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the documents confirm what is known about the camps from the testimony of Uighurs and Kazakhs, satellite imagery and highly restricted visits by journalists to the region.Erzhan Qurban, a Chinese-born ethnic Kazakh, was held for nine months because he had spent time abroad in Kazakhstan. Qurban said he was locked in a cell with 10 others last year, forced to sit rigidly for hours and forbidden to pray or even talk.“It wasn’t education, it was just punishment,” said Qurban. “I was treated like animal.”Other detainees have said there was torture or rape at the camps.’Extreme surveillance’The documents show direct links between the internment camps and the extreme digital surveillance in Xinjiang. One document states that the purpose of the surveillance is “to prevent problems before they happen.”FILE – Residents walk past a security checkpoint at the close of a open air market in Kashgar in western China’s Xinjiang region, Nov. 4, 2017. Authorities are using data-driven surveillance to impose a digital police state in Xinjiang.This is done through a system called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform or IJOP, built by a state-owned military contractor. The IJOP spat out the names of people considered suspicious for behavior that includes going abroad, asking others to pray or using cell phone apps that cannot be monitored by the government. These people were then called in for questioning and funneled into different parts of the system, from house arrest to detention centers with three levels of monitoring to prison.Forced indoctrinationOnce inside, the documents show, detainees are subject to forced indoctrination.The first item listed as part of the curriculum is ideological education. It is partly rooted in the ancient Chinese belief in transformation through education – taken before to terrifying extremes during the mass thought reform campaigns of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.The indoctrination goes along with “manner education,” where behavior is dictated, including ensuring “timely haircuts and shaves,” “regular change of clothes” and “bathing once or twice a week.” The tone, experts say, echoes a general perception by the Han Chinese government that Uighurs are prone to violence and need to be civilized.FILE.- A police station is seen by the front gate of the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center in Artux in western China’s Xinjiang region, Dec. 3, 2018.Mandarin is mandated. Detainees are frequently tested on Mandarin, ideology and discipline, and their scores feed into a point system tracked by computer. Detainees who do well are to be rewarded with perks like family visits and early graduation, and those who do poorly are to be sent to a stricter “management area” with longer detention times.Students go for “vocational skills improvement” only after at least one year of learning ideology, law and Mandarin. After they leave, the documents say, every effort should be made to get them jobs. Some detainees describe being forced to sign work contracts for low pay.Independent experts on Chinese law say the detentions are a clear violation of China’s own laws.“They’re not even trying to justify this legally,” said Maggie Lewis, a professor of Chinese law at Seton Hall University. “This is arbitrary.” 
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A summit this week between leaders of Pacific Rim allies South Korea and the Philippines is expected to show that both lean toward the West rather than China despite their efforts to get along with Asia’s superpower, analysts say.A swing toward the West by either country would put Beijing further on the back foot in Asia, where its military expansion alarms multiple governments, and give the United States a new opening to get involved in the region, scholars believe.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on his office’s website November 20 he will meet his Korean counterpart at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations-South Korea summit in Busan Monday through Wednesday. Asian security issues will lead discussion, it said.“The Philippines and Korea both have been fairly accommodating of China, because Korea given its proximity and Duterte because he wanted to make the best deals,” said Jeffrey Kingston, history instructor at Temple University’s Japan campus.Now, he said, “both of them are countries that feel concerned about the rise of China. Both feel threatened.”Ties with ChinaDuterte broke ice with China in 2016 by setting aside a maritime sovereignty dispute and accepting pledges of $24 billion in Chinese aid, key to his country’s infrastructure renewal effort. But Chinese activity in the disputed South China Sea including a boat collision earlier this year is worrying Filipinos again.South Korea spars with China over ties with North Korea. The north, a Chinese ally, periodically tests missiles near the south, and in 2017 Beijing condemned the south for installing an advanced antimissile system. Chinese officials feared the U.S.-backed system could monitor activity in China.FILE – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, meet at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Aug. 29, 2019.China and South Korea separately dispute sovereignty over a tiny island, and South Korea’s coast guard has fired on Chinese fishing boats. However, the two sides, separated by just a few hundred kilometers, agreed last month to improve relations and pursue denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.“Although Korea has its own problems with China, especially with fishing and some islands, they’re handling it very, very differently from us,” Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.US alliancesThe two leaders are expected to talk about China this week.“The equilibrium of geopolitics will be high on the agenda including issues such as the tension in the Korean Peninsula and the Spratly Islands,” Manila’s presidential website quotes Duterte saying. Beijing and Manila dispute sovereignty over the Spratlys, an archipelago in the South China Sea.South Korea and the Philippines, though both historic U.S. military allies in Asia, lack the clout on their own to take any action, said Fabrizio Bozzato, Taiwan Strategy Research Association fellow who specializes in Asia and the Pacific. They might instead jointly support a broader alliance, he said.“I believe that they can be part of a regional U.S.-centric and Japan-centric regional architecture to resist China, but they cannot be the initiator of that,” Bozzato said. “What they have in common really is that they are both allies to the United States and that they are facing China’s pressure.”A top U.S. defense official pledged in June more military cooperation in Asia — and criticized China’s military expansion. Washington regularly sends naval ships to the region as warnings to China.Last month the Philippines joined U.S. and Japanese forces for annual military exercises that news reports from Manila said were designed to keep Asia “free and open,” wording that Washington uses to ask that China quit expanding. Duterte had resisted U.S. help in 2016 and 2017.South Korea answered U.S. lobbying this month by saying it would stay in an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan despite a trade spat with the Japanese government.South Korea still looks to China and the United States for help on North Korea issues, said Steven Kim, visiting research fellow at the Jeju Peace Institute.U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, right and South Korea defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, left attend a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019.“It will have to carefully calibrate its relations between the two great powers while occasionally hewing closer to one over the other depending on which of its interests are on the line or at stake,” he said.Korean aid to the PhilippinesSince 2017, South Korea has already emerged as a benefactor to the Philippines and their leaders are due to sign four economy-related deals at the summit.Two years ago it offered $1.7 billion in credit and other financial aid to help the Philippines improve transportation and energy. Analysts told VOA Seoul hoped to offset Chinese influence in the developing Southeast Asian country.South Korean companies also build ships for the Philippines as Manila seeks to upgrade its navy. Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries started work this month on a Philippine frigate, news website Navaltoday.com reported. Another frigate is due for delivery in May.“The Philippines is getting a lot of its modernization requirements like ships from Korea,” Batongbacal said.
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Hong Kong pro-democracy forces appear headed for a landslide victory in local elections that saw record turnout, delivering a stunning rebuke to Beijing.Early voting results Monday showed pro-democracy candidates winning nearly every seat they contested in Hong Kong’s 18 district councils. Pro-democracy candidates led the pro-establishment camp, 278 seats to 42.If the trend continues, it would be a major symbolic blow to pro-China forces that dominate virtually all levels of Hong Kong’s politics.It is the latest evidence of continued public support for a five-month-old pro-democracy movement that has become increasingly aggressive.“Hong Kongers have spoken out, loud and clear. The international community must acknowledge that, almost six months in, public opinion has NOT turned against the movement,” student activist Joshua Wong said on Twitter.The vote will not significantly change the balance of power in Hong Kong’s quasi-democratic political system. District council members have no power to pass legislation; they deal mainly with hyperlocal issues, such as noise complaints and bus stop locations.However, the district council vote is seen as one of the most reliable indicators of public opinion, since it is the only fully democratic election in Hong Kong.
On Edge From Violence, Hong Kong Holds Local Elections video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkWatch related video by VOA’s William GalloMassive turnoutNearly 3 million people voted in the election — a record high for Hong Kong, and more than double the turnout of the previous district council election, in 2015.Voters formed long lines that snaked around city blocks outside polling stations across the territory, many waiting over an hour to vote.“This amount of people I’ve never seen. There are so many people,” said Felix, who works in the real estate industry and voted in the central business district.By nighttime, most of the long lines at voting stations had tapered off, but nearby sidewalks remained filled with candidates and their supporters who held signs and chanted slogans in an attempt to persuade passersby to cast last-minute votes.
 
“I’m tired, but I think it’s more important to fight,” said Elvis Yam, who waited in line for an hour to vote in the morning and then volunteered to hold a campaign sign for a pro-democracy candidate in the University District.Voters queue to vote at a polling station during district council local elections on Hong Kong Island, China November 24, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha 
Mr. Ma, a voter in the South Horizons West constituency, said he sees the election as a continuation of the protest movement. “Many would like to have a change. So this election is very important,” he said.
 
Police promised a heavy security presence at voting locations. But outside many polling stations, there was no visible police presence. At others, teams of riot police waited in nearby vans. There were no reports of major clashes.Hong Kong has seen five months of pro-democracy protests. The protests have escalated in recent weeks, with smaller groups of hard-core protesters engaging in fierce clashes with police.The win “very clearly” shows the public is in support of the movement, says Ma Ngok, a political scientist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.“This will, I think, give (Hong Kong) much better support internationally, and also create much more pressure for the Hong Kong government to respond to the demands of the protest,” Ma said.Electoral staff helps a voter at a polling station during district council local elections in Hong Kong, Nov. 24, 2019.Wider impact?Even though district councils have little power, the vote could affect how the territory’s more influential Legislative Council and chief executive are selected in the future.District councilors are able to select a small number of people to the 1,200-member election committee that chooses Hong Kong’s chief executive. They also have the ability to select or run for seats in the Legislative Council.“That’s a big deal,” said Emily Lau, a former Legislative Council member and prominent member of the pro-democracy camp. “Because of this constitutional linkage, it makes the significance of the district council much bigger than its powers show you.”
 
Hong Kong saw a major surge in voter registration, particularly among young people. Nearly 386,000 people have registered to vote in the past year — the most since at least 2003.Many Hong Kongers are concerned about what they see as an erosion of the “one country, two systems” policy that Beijing has used to govern Hong Kong since it was returned by Britain in 1997. 
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Hong Kongers voted in record numbers Sunday in a local election that is widely seen as a de facto referendum on recent pro-democracy protests.Voters formed long lines that snaked around city blocks outside polling stations across the territory, many waiting more than an hour to vote in local elections that are usually viewed as relatively inconsequential.District Council members who are being elected by Hong Kong voters have no power to pass legislation. But the election is the first chance for Hong Kongers to vote since a wave of anti-government protests erupted in June, creating bitter divides in Hong Kong society.A record 4.1 million Hong Kongers registered to vote, and it appears a record number will turn out. By midday Sunday, the number of voters had surpassed that of the previous District Council election in 2015, according to government figures. By 3:30 p.m., nearly 2 million had cast their ballots.Disqualified candidate and pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong stands in line to vote in the district council elections in Hong Kong, Nov. 24, 2019.“This amount of people I’ve never seen. There are so many people,” said Felix, who works in the real estate industry and voted in the central business district.Mr. Ma, a voter in the South Horizons West constituency, said he sees the election as a continuation of the protest movement.“It’s a way to show whether the Hong Kong people support democratic or conservative pro-establishment candidates. Many would like to have a change. So this election is very important,” he said.“The district councils have been dominated by the pro-establishment for years. We want to have more democrats to be elected to the district councils,” said Ms. Kwok, another voter.The territory is on edge following intense clashes between police and groups of mostly student protesters, though the violence has subsided in the past few days.Police promised a heavy security presence at voting locations. But outside many polling stations, there was no visible police presence. At others, teams of riot police stood by in nearby vans.An electoral staff member helps a voter at a polling station during district council local elections in Hong Kong, Nov. 24, 2019.Sending a messageHong Kongers are choosing more than 400 members of 18 district councils scattered across the tiny territory. The district councils essentially serve as advisory bodies for local decisions such as building roads or schools.“I think the political message is more important than anything else,” Ma Ngok, a political scientist and professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said. “If the democrats really score a landslide victory, it will show very clearly that the public is in support of the movement.”Hong Kong has seen five months of pro-democracy protests. The protests initially took the form of massive demonstrations against a reviled extradition bill, which could have resulted in Hong Kongers being tried in China’s politicized court system.The protests have escalated in recent weeks, with smaller groups of hard-core protesters destroying public infrastructure, defacing symbols of state power and clashing with police. Protesters defend the moves as an appropriate reaction to police violence and the government’s refusal to meet their demands.Protesters address the media at the campus of the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Nov. 24, 2019.Despite the protester violence, polls suggest the movement still enjoys widespread public support. Meanwhile, the approval of Hong Kong’s Beijing-friendly chief executive, Carrie Lam, has fallen to a record low of about 20%.Quasi-democratic systemUnder Hong Kong’s quasi-democratic system, district councils have little power. But the vote could affect how the territory’s more influential Legislative Council and chief executive are selected in the future.“That’s a big deal,” said Emily Lau, a former Legislative Council member and prominent member of the pro-democracy camp. “Because of this constitutional linkage, it makes the significance of the district council much bigger than its powers show you.”FILE – Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker Emily Lau talks to a girl, Aug. 24, 2016, while she campaigns in Hong Kong. After two decades as a pro-democracy lawmaker, Lau expects to step down to give priority on the ballot to the party’s younger faces.The pro-democracy camp has tried to use the protests as a mobilizing force ahead of the vote, and is fielding an unprecedented number of candidates.But they have a lot of ground to make up. Pro-government forces make up the majority in all 18 district councils, with the so-called “pan-democrats” taking up only about 25% of the overall seats, Ma said.Hong Kong has seen a major surge in voter registrations, particularly among young people. Nearly 386,000 people have registered to vote in the past year — the most since at least 2003 — according to the South China Morning Post.Many Hong Kongers are concerned about what they see as an erosion of the “one country, two systems” policy that Beijing has used to govern Hong Kong since it was returned by Britain in 1997.
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Hong Kongers are voting Sunday in a local election widely seen as a de facto referendum on pro-democracy protests that have recently taken a more aggressive turn. The territory is on edge following days of intense clashes between police and groups of mostly student protesters, though the violence has subsided in the past few days. Though the district council members being chosen Sunday have little power, pro-democracy forces still hope for a big win that will confirm public support for the protests. Police have promised a heavy security presence at voting locations. Public broadcaster RTHK reports officers will be stationed inside and outside polling stations in riot gear. “If there’s any violence, we will deal with it immediately, without hesitation,” Chris Tang, Hong Kong’s police commissioner, said. A riot policeman stands as voters line up outside a polling place in Hong Kong, Nov. 24, 2019. Voting was underway Sunday in Hong Kong elections that have become a barometer of public support for anti-government protests.District councilsHong Kongers are choosing more than 400 members of 18 district councils scattered across the tiny territory. The district councils essentially serve as advisory bodies for local matters such as building roads or schools. “I think the political message is more important than anything else,” Ma Ngok, a political scientist and professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said. “If the democrats really score a landslide victory, it will show very clearly that the public is in support of the movement.” Hong Kong has seen five months of pro-democracy protests. The protests initially took the form of massive demonstrations against a reviled extradition bill, which could have resulted in Hong Kongers being tried in China’s politicized court system. The protests have escalated in recent weeks, with smaller groups of hard-core protesters destroying public infrastructure, defacing symbols of state power and clashing with police. Protesters defend the moves as an appropriate reaction to police violence and the government’s refusal to meet their demands. Despite the protester violence, polls suggest the movement still enjoys widespread public support. Meanwhile, the approval of Hong Kong’s Beijing-friendly chief executive, Carrie Lam, has fallen to a record low of about 20%. Quasi-democratic system Under Hong Kong’s quasi-democratic system, district councils have no power to pass legislation. But the vote could affect how the territory’s more influential Legislative Council and chief executive are selected in the future. “That’s a big deal,” said Emily Lau, a former Legislative Council member and prominent member of the pro-democracy camp. “Because of this constitutional linkage, it makes the significance of the district council much bigger than its powers show you.” The pro-democracy camp has tried to use the protests as a mobilizing force ahead of the vote and is fielding an unprecedented number of candidates. A volunteer medic searches for protesters inside a building on the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where dozens of pro-democracy protesters remain holed up, in the Hung Hom district of Hong Kong, Nov. 23, 2019.But they have a lot of ground to make up. Pro-government forces make up the majority in all 18 district councils, with the so-called “pan-democrats” taking up only about 25% of the overall seats, Ma said. Hong Kong has seen a major surge in voter registration, particularly among young people. Nearly 386,000 people have registered to vote in the past year, the most since at least 2003, according to the South China Morning Post. Voter sentiment mixed At a recent pro-democracy rally in central Hong Kong, many protesters said they plan to vote, but they were divided on whether the election will lead to real change. “I’m not excited,” said Ip, giving only her first name. “I think voting is one of our ways to express our voice, but I doubt the results will be very good.” Another demonstrator, who gave the name Ms. Chan, said she also intends to send a message by voting. “The government needs to listen to the people,” she said. “They do many wrong things, so I think many people will go out and vote.” 
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When he left the house last week, Joseph, a 19-year-old Hong Kong college student, told his parents he was going to hang out with friends. That was only partly true.In reality, Joseph was headed for the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he and a group of hundreds of other young people barricaded themselves on campus, blocked a major highway, and stockpiled homemade weapons in preparation to battle police.Night after night last week, the urban campus become a battlefield, as police rained tear gas and rubber bullets on students, who responded with Molotov cocktails, bricks, and whatever else they could find.Though Hong Kong has seen five months of protests, this kind of violence is new. The pro-democracy movement that had been marked by massive street rallies now risks being overtaken by a smaller group of hardcore students who have shown they are willing to go beyond peaceful demonstrations and engage in prolonged battles with police in their push for democratic reforms.“I would definitely admit that we’re using a certain level of violence,” says Joseph, who spoke via an encrypted messaging app. “But in order to protect the innocent protesters and create pressure on the government, a certain level of violence and power to fight back is necessary.”
In the minds of frontline protesters like Joseph, the violence is a last-ditch effort to preserve what is left of Hong Kong’s freedoms before the semi-autonomous territory is fully taken over by China in 2047. Hong Kong authorities accuse the protesters of engaging in violence that is incompatible with democracy.Protesters walk inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in Hong Kong, Nov. 23, 2019.VOA spoke with about 10 young protesters, all of whom were at Polytechnic University over the past week. Though the standoff is largely over, a couple dozen holdouts remain on campus. Most have either surrendered to police or escaped. Some of the protesters face possible riot-related charges that could land them in jail for 10 years. VOA has used pseudonyms to protect their identity.‘We tried peaceful demonstrations’“We tried peaceful demonstrations, but the government didn’t listen,” says Crystal, a Polytechnic student protester who has been on the run since leaving campus. She says she hasn’t been able to sleep a full night in more than a week.”I’m scared, really scared,” she says.Crystal wants to someday be an elementary school teacher, but for now she considers herself a revolutionary.“Radical, I think, is a positive word for me, for us,” she says. “And most revolutions have violence.”At this point, she’s unsure of whether to stay in Hong Kong and fight, or seek political asylum in another country.“This is my place. This is my home. I need to protect it,” she says. “And I know that in 2047, I will become an old woman. But what about the next generation? And the next generation? What they will become? Brainwashed? Everything fake, like China?”Debris and graffiti are seen inside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus, in Hong Kong, Nov. 22, 2019.OutmatchedMost of the frontline students that fought at Polytechnic are in their teens or twenties. Some are new protesters. Others are veterans of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, a student-led protest that unsuccessfully pushed for universal suffrage.When it comes to brute strength, the students are outmatched, not only by the weapons of the Hong Kong police, but even more so by those of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest military. The PLA has thousands of troops in Hong Kong and many more just across the border, though they have not yet left their barracks to confront the protesters.“We deeply understand we are not able to win in hand to hand fighting,” says Joseph. “But still, we shouldn’t be silent in the face of injustices.”That is a common sentiment among frontline protesters, many of whom resent local and mainland Chinese media that accuse them of being naive children who are being pushed to the frontline by irresponsible adults. In reality, many of the more extreme protesters seem frequently self-aware, expressing a potentially dangerous mix of fatalism and determination.In other words: they know they’ll likely lose, but they’re willing to fight anyway.“We both know that it’s impossible to win, but only persistence can bring hope. If we never try, we know how this ends. We can’t just say no no, impossible. Why not just try?” says Crystal.Another student on campus, who carried a bow and arrow, and donned a military-style camouflage helmet, acknowledged that his weapons are no match for the forces he is up against.A Lennon wall is seen on the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in Hong Kong, Nov. 23, 2019.“All the protesters are scared—because maybe we will die,” he said, speaking in front of a pile of mangled classroom desks that had been stacked up to form a barricade against police. “But we think if we don’t stand up this day, [then] all the freedom in Hong Kong will lose. There is no way for us to go back now.”“All of us here know what we are doing,” said another frontline protester at Polytechnic, who spoke through a black gas mask that distorted his voice. “Because our demands are not being addressed, that’s why we are having to escalate and upgrade our actions so as to get the results from the government,” he said.Five demandsThe latest round of protests erupted in June in opposition to an extradition bill. The proposal could have seen Hong Kongers tried in mainland China, where courts are controlled by the Communist Party and reports of torture and forced confessions are common.Though authorities eventually abandoned the extradition bill, by then the protests had morphed into wider calls for democracy and opposition to the expanding influence of Beijing.The protesters have adopted a list of five demands, including an investigation into police brutality, amnesty for arrested protesters, and direct elections for both the legislature and top executive.But besides scrapping the extradition bill, Hong Kong authorities have refused to make concessions. Instead, as they have from the beginning, authorities dismiss the protests as riots.“The rioters’ actions have far exceeded the call for democracy. They are now the enemy of the people,” Hong Kong’s Beijing-friendly Chief Executive Carrie Lam said earlier this month.A place where Molotov cocktails were made is seen on the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in Hong Kong, Nov. 23, 2019.‘Off the rails’Though the protesters appear to still have the support of a large segment of the Hong Kong public, some are worried about the direction of the protests.“This movement has come off the rails and is really out of control,” says Steve Vickers, the former head of the Royal Hong Kong Police Criminal Intelligence Bureau. “The violent element, the sharp end of it, is really destroying the message that the rest of them had established through large demonstrations, which were peaceful.”Vickers points to instances where protesters have vandalized public infrastructure, such as subway stations and highway toll booths. In other cases, pro-Beijing individuals or businesses have been attacked or set on fire.“Demanding five things or we will burn down your railway stations on a regular basis is not going to end happily anywhere in the world,” says Vickers, who heads the SVA Risk Consultancy.In recent weeks, there have also been several attacks on pro-democracy figures, including one politician who had his ear partially bitten off by a knife-wielding man outside a shopping mall.Election a referendum?Sunday’s local elections could serve as a de facto referendum on the protest movement. Authorities had considered postponing the vote because of the violence, but they decided to move ahead, with a large police presence expected at polling stations.“If the democrats really score a landslide victory, that will show very clearly that the public is in support of the movement, despite recent violence,” says Ma Ngok, a political scientist with the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “This will, I think … [create] much more pressure for the Hong Kong government to respond to the demands of the protesters.”Polls suggest a generational divide between younger Hong Kongers, who are resentful of increasing Chinese influence, and older Hong Kongers, who prefer stability even if it means a lesser degree of freedom.For frontline protester Joseph, whose father is pro-Beijing, that means sneaking out of the house to attend violent protests.“We’ve had a few strong arguments, but I’m pretty sure there are many families struggling with that,” he says.Although Joseph says he has no plans to stop protesting, he doesn’t expect the violence to get much worse, for now.“Keeping pressure on the government,” he says. “That is our first priority at the moment.” 
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A self-confessed Chinese spy has given Australia’s counterespionage agency inside intelligence on how Beijing conducts its interference operations abroad and revealed the identities of China’s senior military intelligence officers in Hong Kong, media reported.Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters Saturday that the detailed accusations of China infiltrating and disrupting democratic systems in Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan are “very disturbing.”The Nine network newspapers reported Chinese defector Wang “William” Liqiang told ASIO, the country’s counterespionage agency, that he was involved in the kidnapping in 2015 of one of five Hong Kong booksellers suspected of selling dissident materials. The incident has been a reference point for protesters during the ongoing unrest in Hong Kong.Demonstrators march during a protest over the disappearance of booksellers in Hong Kong, Jan. 10, 2016.He would be the first Chinese intelligence operative to blow his cover.“I have personally been involved and participated in a series of espionage activities,” Wang reportedly said in a sworn statement to ASIO in October.He revealed he was part of a Hong Kong-based investment firm, which was a front for the Chinese government to conduct political and economic espionage in Hong Kong, including infiltrating universities and directing harassment and cyberattacks against dissidents.Using a South Korean passport, Wang said he meddled in Taiwan’s 2018 municipal elections and claimed there were plans to disrupt the presidential vote on the democratic self-ruled island next year. China claims Taiwan as its territory to be reunited by force if necessary.Wang said he faced detention and possible execution if he returned to China.Seeking asylumHe said he currently was living in Sydney with his wife and infant son on a tourist visa and had requested political asylum.Australia’s Home Affairs Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.In Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry did not respond Saturday to a faxed request for comment on Wang.In Hong Kong, calls to the China Innovation Investment Limited office went unanswered Saturday. The company was identified by Wang as a front for Chinese intelligence operations in the city.According to its website, CIIL is an investment holding company incorporated in Cayman Islands in February 2002 and listed on Hong Kong’s stock exchange in August the same year. It has investments in several companies in Hong Kong and China involved in energy storage products, lightning products, energy saving and media terminals.Frosty Australia-China relationsResource-rich Australia relies on China for one-third of its export earnings, but relations have been frosty for some time.The Australian government has been trying to neutralize China’s influence by banning foreign political donations and all covert foreign interference in domestic politics.“These are very disturbing reports,” Frydenberg said. “The matter is now in the hands of the appropriate law enforcement agencies.”“The government makes no apologies for the strong measures that we’ve taken to ensure that we have foreign interference laws in place,” he added. “We will always stand up for our national interest whether it’s on matters of foreign policy, foreign investments or other related issues.”Former ASIO boss Duncan Lewis warned on Friday that the Chinese government was seeking a “takeover” of Australia’s political system.Prime Minister Scott Morrison dismissed such concern, saying that national intelligence agencies were on top of any threats.
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A Hong Kong university campus under siege for more than a week was a deserted wasteland Saturday, with a handful of protesters holed up in hidden refuges across the trashed grounds, as the city’s focus turned to local elections.The siege neared its end as some protesters at Polytechnic University on the Kowloon peninsula desperately sought a way out and others vowed not to surrender, days after some of the worst violence since anti-government demonstrations escalated in June.“If they storm in, there are a lot of places for us to hide,” said Sam, a 21-year-old student, who was eating two-minute noodles in the cafeteria, while plotting his escape.Another protester, Ron, vowed to remain until the end with other holdouts, adding, “The message will be clear that we will never surrender.”A protester who calls himself “Riot Chef” and said he was a volunteer cook for protesters smokes in a canteen in Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Nov. 23, 2019.Many arrestsAbout 1,000 people have been arrested in the siege in the Chinese-ruled city, about 300 of them younger than 18.Police have set up high plastic barricades and a fence on the perimeter of the campus. Toward midday, officers appeared at ease, allowing citizens to mill about the edges of the cordon as neighborhood shops opened for business.Rotting rubbish and boxes of unused petrol bombs littered the campus. On the edge of a dry fountain at its entrance lay a Pepe the frog stuffed toy, a mascot protesters have embraced as a symbol of their movement.A worker repairs toll booths that were damaged during protests, at the Cross Harbour Tunnel near Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, Nov, 23, 2019.Scores of construction workers worked at the mouth of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, closed for more than a week after it was first blockaded, to repair toll booths smashed by protesters and clear debris from approach roads.The road tunnel links Hong Kong island to the Kowloon area.Elections SundayThe repairs got underway as a record 1,104 people gear up to run for 452 district council seats in elections Sunday.A record 4.1 million Hong Kong people, from a population of 7.4 million, have enrolled to vote, spurred in part by registration campaigns during months of protests.Young pro-democracy activists are now running in some of the seats that were once uncontested and dominated by pro-Beijing candidates.The protests snowballed since June after years of resentment over what many residents see as Chinese meddling in freedoms promised to Hong Kong when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.Beijing has said it is committed to the “one country, two systems” formula by which Hong Kong is governed. It denies meddling in the affairs of the Asian financial hub and accuses foreign governments of stirring up trouble.Trump says he spoke to XiIn an interview with Fox News Channel on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had told Chinese President Xi Jinping that crushing the protests would have “a tremendous negative impact” on efforts to end the two countries’ 16-month-long trade war.“If it weren’t for me Hong Kong would have been obliterated in 14 minutes,” Trump said, without offering any evidence.“He’s got a million soldiers standing outside of Hong Kong that aren’t going in only because I ask him, ‘Please don’t do it, you’ll be making a big mistake, it’s going to have a tremendous negative impact on the trade deal,’ and he wants to make a trade deal.”
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Vietnamese authorities arrested blogger and independent journalist Pham Chi Dung, a prominent government critic and VOA contributor, in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday.In a statement posted online, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security accused Dung of “dangerous” anti-state actions, including “fabricating, storing, and disseminating information, as well as other materials opposing the Vietnamese government.”State media said Dung carried out “anti-regime activities such as producing anti-state articles, [and] cooperating with foreign media.”Dung, 53, president of the outlawed Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), could face a jail sentence of five to 20 years if found guilty, local media said.Dung, who writes regularly on VOA’s Vietnamese Blog, faced similar allegations in 2012.IJAVN vice president Nguyen Tuong Thuy told VOA that Dung’s arrest was “a dangerous move to silence dissenting voices and repress freedom of speech in Vietnam.”IJAVN’s website has been blocked since Dung’s arrest. Thuy said he fears “the arrest will have a big impact on the group’s activities and its members,” as authorities continue to investigate the group.Dung established IJAVN as a “civil society organization,” July 4, 2014, and has said that America’s Independence Day inspired him to create a platform to advocate for freedom of the press, freedom of expression and democracy.A screenshot taken Nov. 22, 2019, shows Pham Chi Dung’s Facebook cover photo.“The arrest of Pham Chi Dung is the continuation of an intensified crackdown against political activists and bloggers in Vietnam,” freelancer Duong Van Thai, a Vietnamese political asylum seeker in Thailand and a former state-run media reporter in Vietnam, told VOA. “The arrest showed Hanoi’s desire to exercise greater control over the freedom of speech.”Nguyen Tuong Thuy noted that Dung’s criticism of the government had intensified of late, likely triggering his arrest.“He has written more aggressively in a stronger style, but Pham Chi Dung is still the same!” Thuy saidDung resigned from the Communist Party in 2013, ending 20 years of membership. In the years since, Reporters Without Borders has lauded him as an “information hero.” In addition to VOA, he has contributed to NBC News and Nikkei Asian Review.The Vietnamese government continues to ban independent or privately-owned media outlets. It exerts strict control over radio and TV stations and printed publications, and routinely block access to politically sensitive websites. 
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