<JC Denton: Despite all I’ve read about the Triads, I wasn’t prepared to see them operating in the open, on the streets, and wearing uniforms. Doesn’t the Chinese government care?
>Isaac: The Chinese leave Hong Kong alone. They barricade the roads to control trade to the mainland, but they know how business is done."
<JC Denton: I would think the secret smuggling operations of the Triads would disturb the Chinese government.
>Isaac: Maybe the Luminous Path, but China knows that the Red Arrow are business owners, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and that they protect the city from outside influences.
<JC Denton: You said 'outside influences.' What does China fear?
>Isaac: China is the last sovereign country in the world. Authoritarian but willing - unlike U.N.-governed countries - to give its people the freedom to do what they want.
<JC Denton: As long as they don’t break the law.
>Isaac: Listen to me. This is real freedom, freedom to own property, make a profit, make your life. The West, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power.
<JC Denton: Our governments have limited power by design.
>Isaac: Rhetoric–and you believe it! Don’t you know where those slogans come from?
<JC Denton: I give up.
>Isaac: Well-paid researchers - how do you say it? - 'think tanks,' funded by big businesses. What is that? A 'think tank'?
<JC Denton: Hardly as sinister as a dictator, like China’s Premier.
>Isaac: It’s privately-funded propaganda. The Trilateral Commission in the United States for instance.
<JC Denton: The separation of powers acknowledges the petty ambitions of individuals; that’s its strength.
>Isaac: A system organized around the weakest qualities of individuals will produce these same qualities in its leaders.
<JC Denton: Perhaps certain qualities are an inseparable part of human nature.
>Isaac: The mark of the educated man is the suppression of these qualities in favor of better ones. The same is true of civilization.