WATCH: In Conversation with Benedict Rogers. New episode with Derek Mitchell.

In the new episode, we are honoured to have Ambassador Derek Mitchell, President of the National Democratic Institute, who shared with us his insights and opinions on the events in Hong Kong in the past 18 months signify for the freedom and democracy in both Hong Kong and worldwide. He also shared his observations on how the fight for Hong Kong democracy that takes place outside of the city has waken up the world to what China really is, and the signals it is sending about its values.

Derek says: “So they [China] have shut things down [in Hong Kong], it’s extremely depressing to watch from the outside. But it leaves with the movement in a situation of having to adapt to a closed environment now, inside Hong Kong. For those who are outside the country, should be fighting on if they desire to keep the fight up, they have to fight outside. What it does is they’ve waken up the world, because it happens in broad daylight, so it sends a signal about China, further signal to those who were, maybe, asleep over the decade or so that China is something quite different that they hoped it might become, and Hong Kong has been a wake-up call for Europe, for maybe some of the United States and elsewhere, and we just have to look at the facts of what China really is, and the signals it’s sending about its values and what it wants to export to the world.”

Besides Hong Kong, Ambassador Mitchell has also shared his views on why the world must be quite concerned about China's designs on Taiwan in the future. He also shares the vision of National Democratic Institute, its ways of working in particularly on Hong Kong under the National Security Law and provided a strategic view in terms of how the global community can prepare and respond to the rising China.