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監製：Diana Wan

RTHK's English-language current affairs programme that takes "The Pulse" of Hong Kong ... and the world around it.

"The Pulse" is presented by locally and internationally known journalist and writer Steve Vines.

Its focus? The latest events and trends that affect Hong Kong - from the corridors of power and business boardrooms, to the streets and dai pai dongs.

"The Pulse" is politics. What's happening in the Legislative Council and on the streets right now.

"The Pulse" is the media, informing us how well or badly our press and broadcast organisations diagnose and reflect the society around us.

"The Pulse" is insightful, in-depth reports and interviews on current issues - examining those issues in depth, looking behind and beyond the news.

Its focus is on the timely. The Now.

Keep your eye ... and your finger ... on "The Pulse".

If you want to discuss anything you've seen in "The Pulse", or anything in the public eye right now, or just to talk about the show, why not join in the debate on our Facebook page, RTHK's The Pulse.

The programme is aired every Saturday on RTHK 31 & 31A at 18:00, and a repeat on Sundays at 06:30.

Archive available later after broadcast. ** Please note that the programme air-time on TV is different with webcast time.

Find us on Facebook: RTHK's The Pulse

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CATCHUP

03 - 05

2019

Chaos in Legco Fugitive Offenders Ordinance bills committee: discussion with Paul Tse & Alvin Yeung

Both the Hong Kong and Beijing governments are determined to get legislators to pass the amendment to Hong Kong’s fugitive offender laws. They’ve set a deadline of July to get it done. At the moment pro-government and pan-democratic legislators are deadlocked and unable to start scrutinising the bill. Initially, democrat James To presided over the first two meetings of the bills committee. However, he was unseated by the pro-government camp through a written vote arranged by Legco’s secretariat.

Last Saturday, tussles broke out when both sides held separate meetings to fight for control of the committee. On Tuesday, another scuffle occurred when both sides tried to start their own meetings. Former Legco president Andrew Wong, an expert on Legco’s rules and procedures, has challenged the legality of the secretariat’s involvement and the pro-government lawmakers’ action. On Friday we went to Legco to discuss these matters with legislators Paul Tse and Alvin Yeung.

18/05/2019

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The continuing Fugitive Ordinance debate: discussion with Christopher Gane of CUHK & Cedric Alviani of Reporters Without Borders

On the show this week, we continue to discuss the on-going debate of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. The highly controversial attempt to amend Hong Kong’s extradition legislation continues with concern centred on the rendition of suspects from the SAR to the Mainland’s judicial system. To discuss the issue are Christopher Gane, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Cedric Alviani, East Asia Bureau Director of Reporters Without Borders.

11/05/2019

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Interview with Kurt Tong, U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau

For months, the United States and China have been at loggerheads over issues of trade and technology transfer, highlighted by the controversy over the telecoms company Huawei. Now it looks as though the two countries could be about to announce a trade deal but neither side will officially confirm this. A Chinese delegation will arrive in Washington on Wednesday to ramp up the negotiations. Meanwhile, recent political events in Hong Kong, give rise to concern over whether the United States will still treat Hong Kong as an entity distinct from China under as specified in the Hong Kong Policy Act. On March 21st, the U.S. Department of State released its report on developments in Hong Kong since May last year. One of its key statements is that, “Hong Kong maintains a sufficient – although diminished – degree of autonomy under “One Country, Two Systems”. But the mood is changing and to gauge how far this is so we went to talk to Kurt Tong, the U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the proposed Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. Again, the difference in turnout estimates by the organiser and the police was huge: 130,000 and 22,800 respectively. There is however common agreement that this was the largest demonstration since the end of the Umbrella Movement three years ago.

04/05/2019

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The Progressive Lawyers Group's "Hong Kong Rule of Law Report" & discussion with Craig Choy, Independent watchdogs appointment, Occupy Central sentencing

Hello and welcome to The Pulse. When Justice Kemal Bokhary retired from the Court of Final Appeal in 2012, he warned of a “storm of unprecedented ferocity” gathering over rule of law in Hong Kong. Seven years on, the storm clouds have intensified. The Progressive Lawyers Group formed in 2015, in the wake of the Umbrella Movement, now includes more than 100 solicitors, barristers, law practitioners, law students and scholars as members. Two weeks ago, the group published its first “Hong Kong Rule of Law Report”. The 322-page bilingual report covers judicial issues, law enforcement, anti-graft initiatives, business, media, academia, individual rights, and events in other key areas last year. It also makes 60 recommendations for improving Hong Kong’s legal environment. With me is former convenos of the group, Craig Choy.

Welcome back. Rather predictably the nominally independent watchdogs, the Equal Opportunities Commission or EOC, and the Ombudsman’s office have faced considerable controversy arising from the way they handle human rights issues and how they interact with Hong Kong’s administration. This month both bodies acquired new leaders coming from disciplined service backgrounds. Human rights concern groups and lawmakers are worried about the suitability of these appointments.

On Wednesday, the District Court sentenced eight leaders of the Occupy Movement. The three co-founders of Occupy Central, Benny Tai, Chan Kin-man and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming received 16 month jail terms. Chu’s sentence was suspended for two years due to health issues. Legislator Shiu Ka-chun and the League of Social Democrat’s Raphael Wong were jailed for eight months. Democratic Party member, Lee Wing-tat and activist Eason Chung received suspended eight-month sentences, while Tommy Cheung was ordered to do 200 hours of community service. Legislator Tanya Chan’s sentencing has been adjourned until June as she needs surgery for a massive brain tumour. We’ll leave you with images of the scene outside the court on the day the sentences were handed down.

27/04/2019

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Interview with British Consul General to HK & Macao, Andrew Heyn

Since the Handover, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary has reported to parliament every six months on the implementation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
The latest report, released last month, covers the second half of last year. Among matters mentioned are the banning of the Hong Kong National Party, the political screening of election candidates, and the expulsion of the Asia News Editor of the Financial Times. It suggests that Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy is “being reduced”, and that there’s a “move towards a mainland Chinese interpretation” of civil and political freedoms. The UK Parliament’s Human Rights Committee also published a report last month. It says the government’s six-monthly reports “appear insufficient” to protect the basic freedoms of people in Hong Kong, and that such freedoms are eroding. With me is the British Consul General to Hong Kong and Macao, Andrew Heyn to talk about it.

And that’s it for this week but we’ll leave you with images of the massive fire that broke out on Tuesday at the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris which has towered over France’s capital since the Middle Ages. President Macron promises it will be rebuilt within five years but for now the people of France are still shocked by what appears to have been a tragic accident.

20/04/2019

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Interview with Carmen Cano, Head of the European Union Office to HK & Macau on Brexit & Occupy Movement leaders' convictions

There’s been a flurry of activity between the European Union and China recently with a major summit seeking to reset relations and some marked divisions emerging in Europe as to how China’s emerging strength should be addressed. Meanwhile the EU has also been looking at events in Hong Kong and expressing misgivings over a direction of travel which includes the introduction of an extradition law that potentially threatens the security of overseas companies and their personnel doing business in the HKSAR. And then there’s the elephant in the room - Brexit casting its ever confusing shadow over the future of the EU. With us in the studio is the Head of the European Union Office to Hong Kong and Macau, Carmen Cano.

At 1.45 am on the 27th of September 2014, Benny Tai announced that Occupy Central had begun, building on a two-day protest during which students had occupied the streets outside the government headquarters in Tamar. The sit-in ended up lasting 79 days and spread to other areas. It was an act of civil disobedience, involving hundreds of thousands of people demanding political reforms and the universal suffrage Hong Kong had been promised in the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. Scholars, students, legislators and other members of the public have since been arrested and prosecuted for their involvement in the movement. Nearly five years later, on Tuesday this week, nine leaders of the movement were found guilty of a number of public nuisance charges. Hong Kong’s last governor Chris Patten says he found it “appallingly divisive to use anachronistic common law charges in a vengeful pursuit of political events”. The central government has supported the court’s ruling and the move “to punish, according to law, the main plotters of the illegal Occupy”.

13/04/2019

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Extradition & rendition laws amendment: discussion with Anson Chan & student action on climate change

Last Sunday, thousands of people took to the streets to protest against government proposals to amend Hong Kong’s extradition laws. Despite that, on Wednesday, the government pushed ahead with initiating the legislative process with measures that amend the two laws allowing fugitives to be transferred to jurisdictions where Hong Kong lacks extradition or rendition arrangements, this principally means the mainland, Macau and Taiwan. The government’s proposals have stirred huge criticism from human rights activists, as well as the legal and business sectors, both locally and internationally. Unsurprisingly the criticism that got the lion’s share of the government’s attention came from the business sector As a result last Tuesday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam agreed to exclude nine economic crimes from the 46 categories of offences covered. With me is former Chief Secretary Anson Chan who has just returned from a trip to the United States at the invitation of the White House.

Last month, cyclone Idai swept through Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. It was the deadliest storm to hit these countries in three decades, killing more than 800 people, and severely affecting millions more. In its wake, over a thousand people were infected with cholera. The United Nations describes it as “one of the worst weather-related catastrophes in the history of Africa”. As ever it’s the world’s poorest people who bear the brunt of the impact from man-made climate change. There is a very widespread feeling that world leaders just aren’t taking the issue seriously enough. Now a younger generation of activists, inspired by the Swedish teen, Greta Thunberg, are speaking out about climate change and their future.

06/04/2019

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Uyghur and Kazakh intellectuals & professionals being detained in Xinjiang

China and Russia may have diverged over how to apply the tenets of Marxism almost 60 years ago, but in recent decades it’s capitalism, even if it is capitalism with Chinese (or Russian) characteristics, that’s dominated the links between the countries, and allowed them to boost trade and living standards in the Russian Far East and Northeast China, and co-operate on major infrastructural projects. With us in the studio is Marie Mendras, visiting scholar of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Department of Government and International Studies of Hong Kong Baptist University.

Our final report on Xinjiang’s “vocational training camps”. As we’ve been reporting over the past two weeks, in the name of combatting counter-terrorism and religious separatism, China is detaining Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs in what it calls, “vocational training camps” in Xinjiang. Among those included in those mass detentions are some of China’s most accomplished Uyghur intellectuals including scholars, academics, writers, poets, and musicians. Scholars such as anthropologist Rahile Dawut and poet Ablet Abdurishit Berqi have been detained. Economist Ilham Tohti, declared guilty of separatist activities in 2014, has been imprisoned for life. Human rights advocates say this is part of a deliberate attempt to weaken and even destroy the cultural identity of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

30/03/2019

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Ethnic Kazakhs being detained in Xinjiang, China

On Monday, China’s State Council issued a white paper titled, “The Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism and Human Rights Protection in Xinjiang” containing a detailed list claiming that since 2014, China has “arrested 12,995 terrorists, destroyed 1,588 violent and terrorist gangs, seized 2,052 explosive devices, punished 30,645 people for 4,858 illegal religious activities and confiscated 345,229 copies of illegal religious materials.” It reiterated the need for its “boarding schools” … I’m sorry: “education and training centres” to rehabilitate and eradicate terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang. As our producer Yvonne Tong reported last week, detainees in the re-education camps in Xinjiang are not only Uyghurs but also ethnic Kazakhs. She went to Almaty in Kazakhstan, to find out more.

Kazakhstan shares a 660-mile border with China. On Tuesday, in a surprise television address, Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his resignation. He’s been the country’s leader since its independence from the Soviet Union almost 30 years ago. On Wednesday the Kazak parliament agreed to change the name of its capital Astana to Nursultan in his honour. But the change in leadership is likely to do little to improve the human rights situation for those who’ve been affected by China’s increasing pressures on Muslims.

23/03/2019

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Islamic communities in China & Kazakhstan

Friday saw the close of China’s annual “Two Sessions”, the back-to-back meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Some 3,000 delegates had travelled to Beijing for the meetings, which opened on March 3rd against the backdrop of a trade war with the United States, a slowing economy, and increasing international suspicions concerning Chinese technology companies, especially Huawei.

But, although this was barely discussed at these meetings, concern ins increasing in the international community over China’s crackdown on religious expression on its Muslim minorities. At the beginning of March, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, meeting in Abu Dhabi, adopted a resolution on “safeguarding the rights of Muslim communities and minorities and commended China for its treatment of Muslims. The resolution attracted immediate criticism and accusations of kowtowing to economic pressures. Despite initial denials from China, the United Nations says a million Uyghurs have been detained in “political re-education camps” and Human Rights Watch reports that surveillance and repression in Xinjiang has increased dramatically over the past two years. Two weeks ago, producer Yvonne Tong visited China and Kazakhstan to talk to members of Islamic communities there.

16/03/2019

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