What keeps the months-long, massive Hong Kong protests going? "60 Minutes" reports

"When you lose freedom, you lose everything," a successful Hong Kong businessman says, explaining why he is part of the pro-democracy street protests
By Holly Williams

This weekend, as they have each weekend for the past four months, pro-democracy protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong, with a message meant to reverberate all the way to Beijing. 

CBS News foreign correspondent Holly Williams, on assignment for "60 Minutes," has been inside the crowds where hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, have joined these demonstrations.
Hong Kong is famous for its freewheeling capitalism. 

After 150 years as a British colony, the city returned to Chinese control in 1997. 

China promised Hong Kong partial autonomy for 50 years -- with an independent legal system, and freedom of speech guaranteed. 

But the Chinese government is now chipping away at those limited freedoms, so Hongkongers are demanding full democracy: the right to elect their own leaders, without interference from Beijing. Jimmy Lai speaks with Holly Williams while protesting in Hong Kong

Who are the protesters? 

And what are their chances of success?
To find out we went to Hong Kong, but to understand what's going on there, you have to start here in Beijing on October 1. 

They threw a carefully choreographed birthday party for the Chinese regime. 

It's been 70 years since the communists took power. 

The show of strength and stability by a rising superpower was also a warning to Hong Kong.
1,200 miles south, people were in no mood to celebrate. 

Hong Kongers are demanding unfettered democracy for their city of 7 million people. 

Many wear face masks to hide their identity from the police.
On the 70th anniversary, the march started peacefully as they normally do.
Holly Williams: You're right in the front.
Jimmy Lai: Yes, always.
At 71, Jimmy Lai has lived the Hong Kong dream. 

Born in mainland China, he fled the communists when he was 12 years old. 

He went from rags to riches, from a worker in a textile factory to a billionaire with a chain of fashion stores. 

And then this.
In 1989, when Chinese tanks massacred students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, he got involved in politics, starting a media company in Hong Kong that isn't afraid to criticize the Chinese government.
Jimmy Lai: I like to participate in delivering information. Because I think information is freedom.
He told us Hong Kongers are demanding real democracy and are fighting to hold on to their basic human rights.
Jimmy Lai: The intention of the Chinese government taking away our freedom is so obvious that we know, if we don't fight, we will lose everything.
Holly Williams: What do you mean lose everything?
Jimmy Lai: When you lose the freedom, you lose everything. What do you have?
Holly Williams: I mean, you have a wonderful city. Prosperity.
Jimmy Lai: That's what Chinese think. That -- they think that we just have a body, we don't have a soul. "You guys just make money, have a good life. Don't think about politics. Don't think about freedom. Don't think about human right. Don't think about rule of law. Just -- just eat. Enjoy life."
Holly Williams: Why is that not enough?
Jimmy Lai: Because we -- we are human being. We have soul. We are not a dog.
And not willing to accept increasing interference from Beijing.
At the anniversary celebration, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping predicted a brighter future for Hong Kong -- but Hongkongers don't trust him.
This gentleman marched proudly with an American flag.
Holly Williams: This man is a refugee from mainland China. He says he swam here in 1962 and he hates the Chinese communist party.
Many of the protesters carry umbrellas. 

That started five years ago in previous demonstrations when they used umbrellas to protect themselves against pepper spray. 

Now the protesters even have their own anthem.
They've released this orchestral version. May freedom reign, go the lyrics. Glory be to thee, Hong Kong.
Jimmy Lai: We share the same value as you Americans. What we are fighting for is the first battle of the new cold war.
Holly Williams: The cold war between the U.S. and China.
Jimmy Lai: -- And China.
Holly Williams: And you're saying your values here in Hong Kong line up with the West?
Jimmy Lai: Yes, because of our -- our British past. They did not give us democracy. But they gave us the rule of law, the free market, the private property right, free press.
Holly Williams: And they have none of those in mainland China?
Jimmy Lai: No. They have none of those.Jimmy Lai

For Jimmy Lai, those values don't come cheap. 

The Chinese government has pressured companies not to advertise in his paper, he told us, costing him millions of dollars a year. 

That's why few business people here dare to criticize China's rulers.
Jimmy Lai: I take the responsibility to fight because this give me -- a meaning to my life.
This young woman, barely in her twenties, calls herself Paris. 

She dresses this way when she protests to protect her identity.
Paris: The people of Hong Kong have been subject to citywide terrorism.
For four months she's been on the front lines.
Paris: The risk I'm taking is pretty much ten years in jail on rioting charges, you know, maybe even more.
Holly Williams: Why are you willing to risk your future for these protests?
Paris: If Hong Kong doesn't have a future, then like, what is my future here? I can't see Hong Kong having a future you know if the movement fails.
Holly Williams: Are you and other protesters willing to risk death?
Paris: No. I'm not willing to die, but you know, I accept that it's a possibility. I think Hong Kong is at a point where things can't turn back, things can only escalate from here.

Paris

The protesters say the police keep overreacting, beating them when they're already down. 

When this group set upon police with metal rods, an officer shot one in the chest at point blank range. He survived, becoming one of more than a thousand protesters to be treated in hospitals. 

2000 have been arrested.
Paris: I think it's difficult when all we have are umbrellas, and police have many weapons at their disposal.
Holly Williams: You don't only have umbrellas. We saw protesters who were throwing petrol bombs. And we've seen—
Paris: Yeah, Molotov cocktails. I would say that the police have pushed us into doing this.
We watched protesters empty a suitcase full of molotov cocktails and set fire to a subway station. The Beijing government uses scenes like this to paint the protesters as rioters, paid off by foreign agents.
The protesters say they won't leave the streets until their demands are met, but the Hong Kong authorities don't want to give in. This is a stalemate and it's only the Chinese government in Beijing that can break it.
China has quietly doubled the size of its Hong Kong garrison in recent weeks. This video seems to be a thinly veiled threat about what Chinese troops might do.

Bernard Chan is a Hong Kong delegate to China's rubber-stamp legislature.
Holly Williams: For 30 years, the West has condemned China for the way that it handled the Tiananmen massacre in 1989. How do you think the world will view Beijing's response to these protests in 30 years' time?
Bernard Chan: I certainly believe that they do not want to see another repeat of what happened back in 1989. So I think that's why they still very much want Hong Kong police to handle our own problem.

The spark for these protests was a proposed law that could have seen people arrested in Hong Kong sent to mainland China, where Hong Kongers don't think they'd get a fair trial. 

Last month, the Hong Kong government finally withdrew the bill, by then though the protesters' demands had expanded to include full democracy.
Samson Yuen: This protest is all about politics. It's about values. It's about civic freedom.
Professor Samson Yuen is studying the protesters. 

His researchers have interviewed more than 13,000 of them. 

He told us most of them are young, middle class, and highly educated. With no official leaders, they organize through online forums.
Samson Yuen: People come up with tactical ideas on how to escalate a protest. How to be innovative. And people actually put this into action.
Holly Williams: Can you give me an example of that?
Samson Yuen: People come up with the idea of protesting at the airport. That idea get a lot of support so it turned into a real action.
Jimmy Lai, the dissident media mogul, says his relatives in mainland China have been threatened with arrest, unless he tempers his criticism. 

He refuses.
Jimmy Lai: I decide long time ago I'm not gonna be intimidated by fear. I say, "No. To hell with it." I'm not gonna think about consequences what I do. I just do what's right.
Lai says his home is under constant surveillance, an apparent attempt to frighten away visitors.

This week, China pressured people outside of Hong Kong; Apple took down an app that could help protesters evade police. Google dropped a game about the Hong Kong protests; and an NBA team executive apologized after tweeting support for the demonstrators.
But on the street, the government's intimidation tactics have backfired, according to professor Samson Yuen.
Samson Yuen: More people are joining the fights because of repeated police brutalities.
Holly Williams: Even the peaceful protesters think that perhaps violence is necessary.
Samson Yuen: Yes. I think definitely. It is not indiscriminate violence. It's more targeted at the police authorities or the government authorities. I think right now, the government is still trying to repress the protests and not willing to negotiate with the protesters.
The young protesters are idealistic, and perhaps naïve, but Jimmy Lai says they're Hong Kong's last chance for freedom.
Jimmy Lai: When I saw the kids went in the front and confront the police, I was very touched. I admire them.
Holly Williams: Why does it touch you?
Jimmy Lai: Because they risk their life to protect this place we call home.
Lai told us his generation has failed them.
Jimmy Lai: In the 30 years, we haven't done anything, the older generation, to secure the freedom, the way of life for our kids. And that's why now they have to stand up to fight for themselves.

The story China went to furious lengths to stop from airing

China's Canberra embassy issued a fierce diktat over a story they didn’t want Aussies to know. Here’s what happened.
By Gavin Fernando and Charis Chang

FIVE days before 60 Minutes aired a program about China’s quest for global dominance, the team received a furious phone call.
“Take this down and take it to your leaders!” the voice on the other end was yelling.
On the line was Saxian Cao, the Head of Media Affairs at the Chinese Embassy in Canberra, and she was laying into the program’s Executive Producer Kirsty Thomson.
“You will listen! There must be no more misconduct in the future!” Cao shouted into the phone.
According to Nine News, Cao accused the network of filming the exteriors of the Chinese Embassy in Vanuatu illegally — a claim Ms Thomson refuted.
Cao also claimed a drone was used to fly over the embassy in a potential safety hazard, which was also disputed.
The report claimed the phone did not end amicably, with Cao shouting: “You will not use that footage!”
It highlighted the lengths to which the Chinese government will go to silence voices it doesn’t agree with — even within Australia, amid an ongoing national debate over foreign interference laws.
The offending 60 Minutes episode — which aired earlier this week — covered the ongoing issue of Chinese encroachment in the Pacific, including the country’s Belt and Road Initiative, a Chinese-built wharf in Vanuatu, and the wider issue of foreign interference in Australia.
So what was the Chinese Communist Party so keen to hide?

CHINA’S RISING INFLUENCE IN THE PACIFIC
Papua New Guinea will soon be the second country in the Pacific to sign on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
“When in China, we’ll be signing the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative,” PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said earlier this week, according to local media.
“That is a great potential for Papua New Guinea, which means that this will help integrate our own economy to the global economy … The rest of the world is making business with China and we cannot simply sit back and allow these opportunities to go by.”
The PNG leader is currently in Beijing for a week-long visit.
The move will no doubt raise alarm bells in Canberra, with fears China is increasing its presence in the Pacific region.
In April, Fairfax Media reported Beijing was negotiating a military base less than 2000 kilometres from our border.
China and Vanuatu have both denied the report, which claimed Beijing was eyeing a military base in the island nation, with global ramifications.
“No one in the Vanuatu government has ever talked about a Chinese military base in Vanuatu of any sort,” Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu said. 

“We are a non-aligned country. We are not interested in militarisation.”
The move prompted fears in Australia over Beijing’s aims for greater military influence in the South Pacific region.

The Conflict Islands in Papua New Guinea.
But Beijing’s economic influence in Vanuatu remains undeniable, with China responsible for almost half of the island nation’s foreign debt.
In places like Sri Lanka and the African nation of Djibouti, China has been granted control over ports after the countries defaulted on massive loans taken out to build the ambitious projects.
There are now fears the same pattern will play out in Vanuatu where China has loaned the country $114 million to build a wharf at Luganville — the site of America’s second largest base in the Pacific during World War II.

CHINA’S DEBT-TRAP STRATEGY
China’s debt-trap game goes something like this: they offer the honey of cheap infrastructure loans, then attack with default when these poorer economies aren’t able to pay their interest down.
At the heart of this sits the Belt and Road Initiative, a trillion-dollar project that seeks to connect countries across continents on trade, with China at its centre.
The ambitious plan involves creating a 6000km sea route connecting China to South East Asia, Oceania and North Africa (the “Road”), as well as through building railway and road infrastructure to connect China with Central and West Asia, the Middle East and Europe (the “Belt”).

This map details China's Belt and Road Initiative.

In the interview with 60 Minutes, Dr Malcolm Davis, senior analyst in defence strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said China is mainly targeting poorer countries and employing a “debt-trap strategy”.
He said the trillion-dollar project basically forces other countries to align themselves with it.
“It gets countries — particularly poorer countries — hooked on debts they can’t pay back,” he said. “When they can’t pay it back, China basically grabs ports, facilities or territory. It’s a debt-trap strategy.
“It services their need in terms of accessing resources, sustaining contacts and national development, and maintaining that ‘China Dream’. It’s really vital for the Communist Party to maintain prosperity if they want to maintain power.”

WHY THE PACIFIC IS CRUCIAL
Why is the Pacific so important to China? 

From the rising superpower’s perspective, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Fiji are the most crucial, as they have the most minerals and natural resources.
But while the strategic aspects of China’s interest in the region have been highlighted recently, experts believe they have been over-hyped.
“I don’t think (the region) is enormously important to China,” Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre deputy director Matthew Dornan told news.com.au.
“The amounts of aid they provide are still not huge. Australia provides a lot more.”
According to the Lowy Institute, China spent $2.2 million on 218 projects in the Pacific between 2006 and 2016. 

This is a lot less than the $10 million Australia contributed.
“I don’t think the Pacific tops its list in terms of strategic importance, even if it does for Australia,” Dr Dornan said.

Australia will no doubt be keeping an eye on China’s strategic moves in the Pacific region.

While the Pacific may not be high on China’s agenda, Australia appears to have woken up to the importance of the region to its own interests.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop recently returned from a bipartisan trip to some Pacific nations with Labor shadow minister Penny Wong. 

They visited Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.
Ms Bishop has denied that the trip was aimed at countering Chinese influence but in an interview with Fairfax Media, acknowledged that China’s construction of roads, ports, airports and other infrastructure in the region had triggered concern that small Pacific nations may be saddled with unsustainable debts.
“We want to be the natural partner of choice,” Ms Bishop told Fairfax earlier this week.
“We want to ensure that they retain their sovereignty, that they have sustainable economies and that they are not trapped into unsustainable debt outcomes.
“The trap can then be a debt-for-equity swap and they have lost their sovereignty.”

How China tried to shut down Australian media coverage of its debt-trap diplomacy in the Pacific

• A Chinese Embassy official yelled and made demands of an Australian producer to try and censor an episode of "60 Minutes" that would be critical of China.
• The Chinese Communist Party regularly interferes with foreign Chinese-language media, but targeting English-language media is rare.
• The "60 Minutes" report covered China's debt-trap diplomacy in the Pacific, including a loan to Vanuatu for a wharf which could be used by the Chinese military.
• Vanuatu's foreign minister said China expects support at the UN in return for financing.

By Tara Francis Chan

Five days before Australia's "60 Minutes" program aired a report on China's dept-trap diplomacy in the Pacific region, the show received an unusually aggressive phone call.
"Take this down and take it to your leaders!" the voice on the other end of the line shouted.
It was the voice of Saixian Cao, the head of media affairs at China's embassy in Canberra.
According to a report from "60 Minutes" journalist Charles Wooley, she was yelling at the show's executive producer, Kirsty Thomson, after failing to gain any traction with higher-ups at the network.
"You will listen," Cao reportedly shouted into the phone.
"There must be no more misconduct in the future."
Thomson and colleagues had been working on a story about China's growing influence over Pacific nations, by using exorbitant loans for infrastructure projects that leave countries indebted to Beijing, both politically and financially.
The story largely focused on China's projects in the island nation of Vanuatu — where the show's team had also recorded footage of the Chinese embassy — and the official was trying everything to kill the story.
"You will not use that footage," Cao demanded.
The incident highlights how China is used to dealing with — and controlling — the Australian media.
Chen Yonglin, a former diplomat at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney who defected in 2005, told Business Insider that this happens frequently with local Chinese language media in Australia and that, ultimately, the incident in Australia would have originated in Beijing.
"The instruction to pressure Channel 9 is from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry obviously believed it is necessary. The representation is to warn Channel 9 and other people not to act like that again," Chen said.
Chen also described how monitoring, and attempting to censor media coverage, is a regular occurrence.
"If it's a local Chinese-language media, the Chinese Embassy/Consulate official should call the Editor-in-Chief directly with serious warning and certain sanctions against this media may follow. For less serious cases, China may request to publish a statement from its Embassy."
Business Insider previously reported how diplomats at a Chinese consulate in Australia invited an advertiser in for an hours-long "tea chat" to convince them to stop funding independent Chinese-language journalism.
Another advertiser had Chinese intelligence and security agents physically camp out in his Beijing office to strip funds from critical media.
And last year, two South Korean journalists who followed President Moon Jae-in's trip to Beijing were physically beaten and severely injured by more than a dozen security guards.
Despite the lengths China often goes to influence and outright interfere with foreign media, Chen believes Cao could face repurcussions for crossing a line.
"All Chinese language media are very obedient. Shouting at local Chinese media is not a surprise, but [shouting] at one of the mainstream English media is rare. Saixian Cao could be punished for her behaviour such as being given an internal warning," Chen said.

China gave Vanuatu a loan 360% more expensive than other options

Part of the "60 Minutes" episode highlighted a Chinese-built wharf in Vanuatu that has gained international attention.
Earlier this year reports emerged that China discussed setting up a military presence in Vanuatu, a claim both countries denied but which Australian defense officials confirmed.
And the country's newly built Luganville wharf, which was funded by China and seems more suited to navy vessels than cruise ships, would be crucial to this.
The fear is that Vanuatu, like many countries before it, accepted a loan with exorbitant interest rates and may need to hand over the wharf to China if it defaults, a practice called debt-trap diplomacy.
The country can't even afford the cleaning or electricity bill for a $19 million, Chinese-built convention center.
Yet Vanuatu took an $85 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China for the Luganville wharf, which is topped with a 2% interest rate, that needs to be repaid within 20 years. 
But a similar wharf project in Port Vila, which was funded with a Japanese loan only required a 0.55% interest rate and gave the country twice as long to repay it.
Business Insider contacted Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu with questions about these loans last week but has not yet received a response.
When Sri Lanka defaulted on its loan for a Chinese-built port, it gave state-owned China Merchants Group a 99-year lease which experts believe was a strategic acquisition in the region.
China expects supporting votes at the UN in return.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks at a Security Council meeting during the 72nd United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly at U.N. headquarters on September 20, 2017 in New York City.

Not only are there concerns that China is trying buy access to facilities and sea routes throughout the Pacific, Vanuatu's foreign minister confirmed Beijing's influx of cash has very, and immediate, global consequences.
Asked by "60 Minutes" whether he thinks China is trying to buy votes at the UN, Regenvanu answered in the affirmative.
"What so you think if they can pump money in here, they'll get support at the UN?" the reporter asked.
"Yes," Regenvanu answered.
"I'm sorry, that's bribery."
"Uh, maybe, that's diplomacy," Regenvanu said.
Australia has been trying to counter China's attempts at foreign interference both locally and in the Pacific, with new and expanded laws currently before parliament.
Last month, an Australian MP and chair of parliament's intelligence and security committee publicly identified Chau Chak Wing, a Chinese-born, Australian billionaire and political donor as having funded a $200,000 bribe to a former UN General Assembly president in order to advance Chinese interests.





Beijing henchman Chau Chak Wing