For months, demonstrations and protests have engulfed Hong Kong.  While Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China that is governed according to the ‘one country, two systems’ rule, recent actions by Beijing – such as an attempt to impose a controversial extradition bill last year and the recent implementation of a national security bill that broadens Beijing’s powers to investigate, prosecute and punish suspected criminals in Hong Kong – have led to sustained protests to protect the autonomy of Hong Kong as well as pro-democracy movements.

What do these protests mean for the future of Hong Kong and China? What does international reactions signal to Hong Kong and to China?  CIC Edmonton has assembled a panel of experts to answer questions on the Hong Kong protests.

The panel includes:

Professor Gordon Houlden is the Director of the China Institute, professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta, and Adjunct Professor at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies. Previously working in the Canadian Foreign Service, he spent twenty-two of his years working on Chinese affairs for the Government of Canada. His last assignment before joining the University of Alberta in 2008 was as Director General of the East Asian Bureau of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Dr. Lynette H. Ong is an associate professor of political science at the University Of Toronto and is cross-appointed to the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Dr. Ong was a Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies in 2008-09 and she has held visiting positions at Harvard University and other universities in Asia, has numerous journal publications that have appeared in the International Political Science Review, China Quarterly, China Journal, Journal of Contemporary Asia and wrote a book called Prosper or Perish, which outlines the perils of mounting local government debt and non-sustainability of the “China model”.

Professor Alejandro Reyes is the director of knowledge dissemination and associate professor at the Asia Global Institute of The University of Hong Kong. Previous to this position, he served as senior policy adviser to the assistant deputy minister for Asia Pacific and co-convenor of the Asia Pacific Policy Hub at Global Affairs Canada. He was educated at Harvard University and the University of Oxford and in 2000 was awarded an honorary doctorate by Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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