The Lawfare Podcast: WTF, Hong Kong?

Jen Patja, Benjamin Wittes, Alvin Y.H. Cheung, Sophia Yan
Tuesday, July 2, 2019, 12:00 PM

Early this week, about 200 protestors broke into and occupied the seat of Hong Kong's legislative assembly. The protests began with a controversial law about extradition to mainland China. That law was withdrawn, but the protestors remain. There are hundreds of thousands of them—a small number of them violent.

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Early this week, about 200 protestors broke into and occupied the seat of Hong Kong's legislative assembly. The protests began with a controversial law about extradition to mainland China. That law was withdrawn, but the protestors remain. There are hundreds of thousands of them—a small number of them violent.


Today we ask: WTF, Hong Kong? To answer that question, Benjamin Wittes spoke with Alvin Cheung, an expert on Hong Kong's legal system based at New York University, and Sophia Yan, the China correspondent for The Telegraph in London who has been covering the Hong Kong protests (Lawfare Podcast listeners also know her for her musical prowess). They talked about where Hong Kong is now, what's really behind the demonstrations, where the anger is coming from, and where it's all going.


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Jen Patja

Jen Patja

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Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
Benjamin Wittes

Benjamin Wittes

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Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.
Alvin Y.H. Cheung

Alvin Y.H. Cheung

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Alvin Y.H. Cheung is a J.S.D. Candidate at New York University School of Law and an Affiliated Scholar at NYU's U.S.-Asia Law Institute. His doctoral project, "Abusive Legalism," addresses the systematic abuse of sub-constitutional legal norms and institutions by authoritarian regimes. Alvin holds degrees from NYU (LL.M. in International Legal Studies, 2014) and Cambridge (M.A. 2011), and has worked in Hong Kong as a barrister and as a lecturer in Law & Public Affairs at Hong Kong Baptist University. He has also written and presented extensively about developments in Hong Kong for academic, specialist, and lay audiences.
Sophia Yan

Sophia Yan

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Sophia Yan is a foreign correspondent for the Telegraph, and has covered East Asia for more than a decade. She reports extensively on human rights, investigating China’s crackdown against ethnic minority groups, and unveiling human trafficking networks between China and the US.

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