The fall of Hong Kong, and the Implications for Taiwan

Speaker: Dennis Kwok, Former Member, Hong Kong Legislative Council (Legal Constituency, 2012–2020), Executive Chair & Co-Founder, China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI)
Visiting Lecturer and Faculty Affiliate (Northeastern University)

The collapse of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong is not merely a local tragedy: it is a geopolitical signal of the first order. When Beijing dismantled Hong Kong's autonomy through the National Security Law of 2020, it extinguished a framework it had once pledged to honour for fifty years, and which many had hoped could serve as a model for peaceful cross-strait unification. Drawing on his experience as a former elected lawmaker in Hong Kong and his research at Harvard Kennedy School and CSRI, Dennis Kwok examines what the end of "One Country, Two Systems" means for Taiwan Strait stability: how it has hardened Taiwanese public opinion against unification, undermined the credibility of Beijing, and reshaped the calculations of the international community.