10 years ago, I had the honour of sitting beside Paddy Ashdown during a dinner function. When I asked him what liberal democracy was, he answered in 3 words 'Liberty, Fairness, Tolerance'. In the weeks leading to this evening, I asked several people - is Liberal Democracy as understood and practised today fit to meet the challenges of the 21^st Century?

Of late the news worldwide has been dominated by the spread of the "Wuhan" coronavirus. We wish to express our concern for all those who have been infected or at risk and note that the repercussions of the coronavirus have been far reaching. These range from the lock down and quarantine of the whole Chinese nation, to cancellation of flights to and from China, to the plunging of Chinese as well as other stocks affected by the epidemic.

On 21 January 2020, ITV's Good Morning Britain aired a programme where co-presenter Piers Morgan mimicked and mocked Chinese speakers in a Chinese advertisement. This attracted more than 300 complaints to Ofcom within the first 24 hours.

Chinese Liberal Democrats sent this to Ofcom:

"Along with hundreds (or possibly thousands) of other people who had viewed the programme.. [we are] writing to complain about the racist language and attitude displayed by the presenter, Piers Morgan. Whilst he may defend himself by saying that he was merely trying to repeat the name of the product in Chinese when reviewing the Peter Philips Royal milk advertisement, it was clear for all to see that he was milking the opportunity to insult and mock the Chinese language and speakers of Chinese.

"I would like to send best wishes to everyone celebrating Chinese New Year!

Across the world friends and loved ones will be coming together, to reflect on the year gone by and look ahead to the future.

Chinese New Year celebrations are marked by wonderful traditions that date back thousands of years. Each year they remind us of how alive and vibrant Chinese culture is in Britain today.

As 2019 draws to a close there is much for us in the Lib Dem to reflect on. We started the year optimistically with gains in the local and European elections. Our membership grew. Then came the General Election and despite more than 50% increase in our vote share we ended up with one less Member of Parliament. However, on reflection after the initial shock, it is not all gloom and doom.

140,000 patriotic Chinese volunteered to go to the Western Front in World War 1 to help the British and the French dig trenches and perform other manual work. This was because they thought that Western democracies would appreciate their sacrifices and reward China justly after the war for her contribution.

Dear Colleagues and Friends

Are you ready for 12 December? This is the chance to change the course of history, to stop Brexit and Build a Better Future.

The Liberal Democrats are ready for the General Elections and Chinese LibDems have a candidate, Dr George Lee, standing in Westminster North who needs your help.

The acronym ALDE stands for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe of which the Liberal Democrats are a member. There are currently 67 member parties and together with France's En Marche make up the RENEW Group, the 3^rd largest grouping in the European Parliament with 108 MEPs. They sit in the centre of the hemicycle between the socialists on the left and the conservative and nationalistic parties on the right and are an influential force in Europe with 5 Liberal Commissioners.

I recently returned from 3 intense days of networking with our European friends in historic Athens, the cradle of democracy, where we were gathered for ALDE's 40^th Congress. A bit like LibDem conferences, there were opportunities for training sessions eg on digital marketing, meeting and hearing from elected politicians such as the Liberal Prime Minister of Luxembourg and the chance to make policy at plenary sessions, ranging from Climate Change to Urgency resolutions on Iraq, Turkey and, of course, BREXIT.

Since July, as the situation in Hong Kong worsened, CLD and other Lib Dems had made several responses. An emergency motion was submitted to the Autumn conference (on inter alia the rights of BNO passport holders) which was not successful in being selected for debate. CLD also wrote to the UK Foreign Secretary and received a polite reply, and Alistair Carmichael MP, the Lib Dem Chief Whip, had put out a statement deploring police violence in HK.