Behind the Headlines | What’s going on in…Hong Kong?

Recorded December 3, 2019. On October 1 as Beijing celebrated the
seventieth anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic
of China, pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong intensified.
This was the 184th day of action by the Anti-Extradition Law
Amendment Bill Movement. Despite the Extradition Bill being
recently rescinded, the protests show no sign of stopping. You
might be one of the Google users who made ‘Hong Kong’ among the
most searched endings to the Google question ‘What’s going on in…?’
Our latest Behind the Headlines discussion seeks to answer that
question, focusing on the escalating protests in the former British
colony and exploring Hong Kong’s turbulent relationship with China.
Speakers Padraig Gallagher lived in Hong Kong for 10 years during
the 90s and more recently from 2007 - 2009. He is a former Managing
Director Global Banking & Markets with HSBC in Hong Kong. He
will look at the economic impact of the events of recent months and
will also look at the reaction of the different sections of the
Hong Kong business community to the present situation. He will also
look at the international reaction to the crisis, especially from
corporates with operations in Asia / Hong Kong. Dr Isabella Jackson
is an Assistant Professor in Chinese Studies at Trinity’s School of
Histories and Humanities. She will look at how Beijing has framed
the current protests in the context of foreign interference, and
how this is a legacy of China’s century of national humiliation –
the period of imperialism by western powers in China. Dr Peter E
Hamilton is an Assistant Professor of Modern Chinese History in the
Department of History, Trinity College Dublin. He will provide an
historical overview of the 1980s-1990s handover process that led
the United Kingdom to return this former colony to China as a
Special Administrative Region on July 1, 1997. He will explain how
the handover process defined the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy
and set terms for today's conflict. Dr Chung Kam Kwok is a Research
Fellow based in the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication
Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, researching in the area of
language and identity. As a Hong Kong native, he will talk about
the motivations of a generation of protesters trying to voice Hong
Kong’s frustration at Chinese control in the region. Looking at the
intensifying protest movement, he will ask how will Hong Kong
become governable again? The Trinity Long Room Hub Behind the
Headlines series is supported by the John Pollard Foundation. Learn
more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/