Judging Freedom - Patrick Lancaster : LIVE from Beijing!

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Patrick Lancaster : LIVE from Beijing!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, June 19th, 2024. Our intrepid friend Patrick Lancaster joins us today from China. Patrick, a pleasure, my dear man. We never know where you're going to be when you pop up on the screen, but welcome here. Welcome to the show as always. And thank you for sharing your time with us. Thanks for having me, Judge. As always, it's great to be on and it's a pleasure to be able to share information with the world with you. Thank you. Thank you. So before we get to what you're observing in China, in Hong Kong, in Taiwan,

what the Chinese people think about this as compared to what the Western press is portraying it, give us your latest take on Ukraine and Russia. I think you left about a week ago. But tell us where things stand militarily. The last time you reported live from Ukraine, you were almost literally under fire, under Ukrainian fire. You were reporting from what under Russian law is Russia, but what the Ukrainians were shelling. And you, as well as other guests of ours,

familiar with the military situation, reported that Ukraine is in bad shape militarily. Where do things stand as you understand it today? Well, obviously, unfortunately, there's still constant shelling of civilian areas in especially the Donetsk region and the city itself of Donetsk. People are unfortunately dying every day and being injured every day. And this goes for civilians because Ukraine is, they have been doing for the last 10 years, shelling civilian areas. And unfortunately in the last week, two of my colleagues have been killed, two journalists have been killed in the Donetsk region. One from shelling and one from a Ukrainian attack

drone. The one that was killed from shelling, the journalist, he was a veteran journalist. And the other man was a younger man and unfortunately they both lost their lives. And another journalist unfortunately lost one of his arms. It was

blown off by some of the shrapnel from the shelling. So thoughts and prayers go out to their families. But beyond that, as we know, President, Vice President Putin proposed a peace deal to Ukraine and was basically denied within minutes. And it seems Ukraine and Zelenskyy and the United States in general is not getting the message from Russia that they're not going to just let some of what is Russia by Russian law not be under Russian control. And that goes for, of course, Crimea. I mean, anybody that thinks that there's any chance that Crimea could come under Ukrainian control again is just living in a fantasy world. I mean, the people of Crimea are for Russia and cried when they became Russia again out of happiness in 2014. And I say again, and it's because before 1956, Crimea was part of

Russia. Anybody born before 1956 in Crimea was born in Russia. They're Russian people, and they still want to be part of Russia. Those are the facts. And they deserve self-determination like everyone across the world. And as far as the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, as they named themselves in 2014, which the West and Ukraine calls the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Those regions, I brought the people footage of the referendums where they voted to leave Ukraine in 2014, which preceded this 10-year war. The war started in Donetsk on May 26, 2014, not 2022, when Russia came in and basically went to war full on. I mean, anybody, you know, you can pick your words, but I mean, this is, there's no question that this is a war, regardless what special names anyone wants to call it.

I mean, the United States called the war in Iraq in 2003, when I was there on an aircraft carrier, they called that Operation Iraqi Freedom. So whether you want to call a war an operation or whatever, everyone knows what it is, and every country calls it by their special name. And the West wants to call out Putin and Russia for saying they have been for two years calling it the special operation. And, you know, they're basically talking down to Russia for using these special words. But the West uses the exact same thing, Iraqi freedom and so on and so on. War is war, regardless of which words you want to put on it. But this war has been going on for 10 years.

In two of those years, Russia has been involved. And the people are dying. And peace needs to come in some way so people can stop dying. But Ukraine and Zelensky in the United States do not want to give an inch. And certainly by Russian law, Putin cannot give up any of what, regardless if the West likes it or not. Russian law calls the region of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, and of course Crimea, part of Russia. So there's no way Putin can give up those territories. in February of 2022 when Putin, quote, invaded Russia. The Western media forgets that Ukraine has been bombing what it acknowledges are its own people,

even though they are legally part of Russia since 2014. And you're telling us that those bombings, Ukrainian military attacking civilians in eastern Ukraine are still going on. Yes, no question about it. Every day, every day, there's many hundreds even of drone attacks across the regions, and many of those are on civilian targets. Do you have a handle on why they're attacking civilians? I mean, of what military or strategic advantage to the Ukrainians is there to attacking their own people? The people that are under the Ukrainian shelling,

when I asked them that, they say it's to terrorize them. It's terrorist tactics and to make them, to try to make them leave and just to scare them or to kill them. And many of these people say they're not going to be pushed around by the Ukrainian government. They're not going to leave. And that goes for the people in these four regions, what the West considers part of Ukraine. And it goes for the civilian targets that Ukraine is targeting inside what is non-disputed Russia. And people say that it's Ukraine terrorizing civilians. That's what they say. These aren't my words. Were you at all surprised by the Ukrainian and Western rejection of President Putin's offer of peace within hours of his making it? I mean, the offer included the word negotiations twice,

yet the rejection was okay. The response was not, okay, let's talk. The response was an immediate and total rejection. Were you surprised? No, because for one, Zlonitsky has said that they are going to the last Ukrainian and taking all of the territory back from Russia, which is just a dream scenario that I think any halfway smart person realized is a total just impossibility. if Zelensky did want to negotiate, it doesn't seem the West will let him because they're the ones footing the bill for this. Do the Ukrainian people still regard Vladimir Zelensky as their lawful president, as their lawful head of the government, even though his term expired, he stayed in office anyway, he canceled elections so he wasn't re-elected. To the Russian mind, he's illegitimate. What is he to the Ukrainian mind? Well, I can tell you about the quote-unquote Ukrainians that the West and Ukraine call Ukrainians that live in Donbass that I see every day when I'm there. pressure and that all he's doing is going for blood and has no interest of helping what is

left of Ukraine um and as far as what the actual Ukrainian people that still live in Ukraine controlled territory I don't know but at this point I don't think it can be very good. I mean, his term, as you said, is over and he shouldn't be president right now, or at least should have gone through an election again. Is there any reaction that you can feel or detect from President Putin's trip to North Korea, which is where I believe he is as we speak. Obviously, Russia is trying to strengthen ties with non-Western countries because of the political situation we're in. So this is a branch of that. He's been, as I said, strengthening ties with many countries, including China and others. What's going to come out of it as far as trade and other things, only time will tell.

Okay. Now, where are you in China and why are you in China? Right now, I am just outside of the city of Chongqing, which has a population of over 30 million. And that's bigger than New York, Chicago and Los Angeles combined, I believe about two times. And I'm here, and actually I'm in mountains just outside the city, and I can show you a little bit of view over this village here. Oh, very, very interesting. Interesting rooftops. Yeah, and

I'm here, basically, because there's been a lot of things in the news about the situation between China and Taiwan and what's going to happen in the future. Is the United States going to support Taiwan if the war breaks out? Is this going to be something like that's happening in Ukraine? So I decided I wanted to come here and find out as much information with my own eyes as I can and share that with my viewers. And just not listen to what the media says about the big bad China like they do about the big bad Russia.

I want to see what the people here have to say and what the real situation is on the ground as far as I can see it and I can understand it. And I'm going to be making a film in Hong Kong, which is an administrative region of Ukraine, or excuse me, of China, which was a colony of Britain and was turned over in a peaceful turnover in 1997 back to China with an agreement that the laws and administration things weren't going to change for another 50 years, which in 2018 there was a set of unrest and riots. So my first report is going to be what is Hong Kong and China in the one country, two systems principle. That is the principle thatifies the governing of Hong Kong and Macau, which is a different special administration of China.

And I'm going to be showing my viewers what is the situation in Hong Kong, what that people have to say about the two different governments. And in fact, Hong Kong uses a whole different currency, the Hong Kong dollar, in comparison to the Chinese yuan. And they have different passports as well, even though it's one country, two systems. So it's a pretty interesting thing, and I'm taking people through that. I've already been to Hong Kong, and this film is going to be taking people through the system itself and talking with the government, talking with the people, business owners, and so on, and also asking them about what they think about Taiwan and China themselves.

I guess you haven't been there yet, so maybe you can't answer this yet, but perhaps I'm wrong. Do the people in Hong Kong fully anticipate this full amalgamation into the People's Republic of China? Do they expect to lose whatever liberties remain from their British years and become part of the Chinese system as we understand it today? Actually, sorry if I wasn't clear enough, I spent a week or five days in Hong Kong, so I've done some time in the L.A. Oh, all right. Well, then maybe you have a feel for this.

That's good. That's even better than I thought. Good. Yes. Yeah. And basically, I asked many people about this, how the West thinks that China is taking over and breaking the agreements about changing the government and systems and whatnot. And of course, they say, yes, some things have changed, but not in a huge negative way. And in fact, the whole 50-year agreement of China not to dramatically change the government,

which expires in 2014, is already said by the government to be indefinitely extended. More of, if something works, why change it? So there's some things that have been changed, like the national security law, which the West likes to, say, use against China. It's this big thing, they're changing changing all this but how is explained to me by the local people and the local government in Hong Kong is that every country has types of national security laws to protect their sovereignty and the how I was explained by the locals and this will be in my film, and the government,

is that this national security law is more of a thing of not to call to bring down the government or to break apart the country. Don't make calls. So that's what I hear from the people, and this is what I'm showing my viewers. Are you going to explore in your documentary and in your travels

in China, the issue of Taiwan? Yes. One of my reports in mainland China, where I am right now, is going to be what is Taiwan and is Taiwan China from the Chinese perspective. And I'm going around speaking to locals on the streets, going to be trying to speak to government officials, businessmen, and et cetera, about what they think about Taiwan and what will happen in the future. And so far, I've spoken to many people, and the overwhelming opinion is that, and answer is that, of course, Taiwan is part of China. And they all say that there will be a unity of Taiwan and China. And when will this happen? And will it be by force? I think, or if it will be by peace talks, that's the question. But there's no question in the Chinese mind that Taiwan is part of China and will be united with mainland China. And in fact, both constitutions of China and Taiwan say that Taiwan is part of China.

Taiwan itself says that it's part of China. It doesn't say that it's independent from China. Have you spoken to Taiwanese about this? That's going to be in a follow-up video. I'm planning a trip to Taiwan in a later trip, but that will be covered as well. Of course, there's two sides to every story. They need to be told. But the Taiwanese constitution does say that Taiwan is part of China, and they claim control, or they claim

the territory of China, even past the borders of China. It's just, it's a different government, the nationalist government, and it's basically after the Civil War, the two governments, two sides of the Civil War in the late 40s broke apart. One ended up in Taiwan. The other ended up in China. And this is how it stands all these years later. Of course, there's other parties involved now, but both sides say they're part of China. I'm very interested when I have the chance to go to China.

But to go farther into my other films that I'm going to be covering, one in Hong Kong, since there was the unrest and protests in 2018, I am going to be going and have been going to several people, several locals, businessmen and government officials asking them about what was the real situation on the ground. And a lot of the answers might be surprising. Right, right. When you go to Taiwan, I'll be very anxious to hear your thoughts on American troops there. We understand there's a small island off the coast of Taiwan called Kinmen, and there's about 2,000 Marines there practicing.

What are they practicing for? Do the Taiwanese expect war, and do they expect that the Biden administration, and if it's succeeded by Donald Trump, the Trump administration, would send troops there and get the United States involved in another war, which is none of its business? Let's, you know, definitely a possibility. The rate of the states has been going over the last decades. I can say for sure that China is aware of the interaction between Taiwan and the United States, and they view it as a provocation by the United States. And these troops in Taiwan are not good for the stabilization of the region as far as the Chinese people are concerned. All right. Well, Patrick, thank you very

much for your time. Godspeed to you. God watch us over you. You're always in hot spots and you always come out unscathed. God love you. Anything else you want to leave us with? the mainland China, a few things I wanted to point out is before coming here, I saw what I saw, knew about China was from the media, from different sources. And I really had an idea that when I was going to come here, you know, it was going to be a little bit of a government overwhelming, you know, controlling a lot of things and maybe I wouldn't be able to film on the streets or things like that, too much control. But honestly, I was blown away by the, the, just the amounts of welcome I felt as a foreigner. I mean, just nothing in a journalist as well. I mean, I came across the border from Hong Kong because it's an actual, the country border's there.

And very friendly, everything automated. I mean, they don't need, I haven't, I've been inside mainland China for five days now, I believe, four or five days. And I haven't even seen paper or coin money yet because it's basically a cashless system and as far as talking to people on the street totally open and friendly people almost no one said oh I don't want to talk I think I had one person this week say they don't want to talk that I asked for an interview course, they speak Chinese here and had the help

of a translator, but just walking down the street, filming where I wanted, no interaction from any authorities or anything like that, just total freedom and asking the people, what do they think about freedom? They say they have freedom. Yes, there's some rules, but it helps them have a better life. So it's a lot of interesting information going to be coming in my overall film of mainland China, inside China, the culture see the comments of the viewers, wildly appreciated by the viewers, and of course, personally appreciated by me. Godspeed. Call us again when you want to come on the show

from wherever you are on the planet. Good luck with your work, and we'll look forward to seeing these documentaries. Thank you, Patrick. All right. Thank you very much, Judge. All the best to you. Thank you, Patrick. All right. Thank you very much, Judge. All the best to you. A great interview from a fearless and courageous young man, good friend of mine and good friend of the show. Coming up later today at 11 o'clock in the morning,

Eastern Professor John Mearsheimer at two in the afternoon. Eastern Matt Ho at 3 in the afternoon. Eastern Aaron Matei. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.