November 25, 2019

On Nov 22, President Trump said on TV “If it weren’t for me, Hong Kong would’ve been obliterated in 14 minutes,” and the media has since widely ridiculed him, suggesting that he has a big mouth and just made up the “14 minutes” claim.

I recently traveled by train between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, where China stations a massive number of troops ready to march into Hong Kong if ordered. Scores of high-speed trains run between the two cities every day, and each takes exactly 14 minutes from Futian Station in central Shenzhen to West Kowloon Station in Hong Kong. No media has mentioned this fact when reporting the “14 minutes” story.

Chinese media have always claimed that the nation’s high-speed train system is ready for military use, and the railway passage is an obvious option for sending troops from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. The President’s national security team likely passed this information to him, and he just used it to illustrate how fast and easy it can be for China to send troops into Hong Kong.

The president seemed informed and accurate, but the media has circulated so much ridicule with so little investigation. It is ridiculous for the uninformed media to ridicule the informed president.

電郵：yuanzhiluo@yahoo.com 博客：https://www.lyz.com

P.S.: Official Train Schedule from Hong Kong to Shenzhen: 

https://www.highspeed.mtr.com.hk/res/pdf/short-haul-train-timetable-tc.pdf