Pottinger’s speech is pretty awful. Sure he has a BA in Chinese studies and can speak fluently, but that doesn’t make him a Chinese scholar and no one will take his thoughts on fundamental social values seriously. It’s cultural appropriation in scholarly clothing. In terms of its functions, I get that it’s commemorative but urging for a 1919 political and social framework to be realised now discounts how much China has changed since then. He speaks as if China has never reformed, as of HK happened in 1968 rather than 2020. A call for democracy now in China would be better served by references to the present, I.e. technology, financial liberalisation, climate change, rise of disinformation, nuclear proliferation, not stale political theory from 1919. The Universal declaration of human rights is close but a severely limited framework of its own. Also, doesn’t he see how framing America First as populist while deriding China’s nationalism is more than just a little ironic.