Lessons from History Series: A Question of Autonomy—Hong Kong Then and Now

July 2022 marks twenty-five years since the United Kingdom and China signed the Sino-British agreement, returning Hong Kong to China with the understanding that China's policies regarding Hong Kong would remain unchanged for the next fifty years and that the city would continue to operate under a high degree of autonomy. Our panelists discuss the history of Hong Kong and where it stands now, halfway through the fifty-year agreement, including the effects of the national security law imposed by China, and the future of the city and the people who live there. The Lessons From History Series uses historical analysis as a critical tool for understanding modern foreign policy challenges by hearing from practitioners who played an important role in a consequential historical event or from experts and historians. This series is made possible through the generous support of David M. Rubenstein. Speakers Mark Clifford President, The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong; Author, Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World: What China’s Crackdown Reveals About Its Plans to End Freedom Everywhere; Former Director, Next Digital; CFR Member Dennis Kwok Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School; Former Member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council (2012–2020); Partner at Elliott Kwok Levine & Jaroslaw LLP Louisa Lim Author, Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong and The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited; Cohost, The Little Red Podcast; Senior Lecturer in Audio-Visual Journalism, University of Melbourne; Former Beijing Correspondent, NPR and BBC Presider Mary Kay Magistad Associate Director, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society; Former China and Southeast Asia Correspondent, NPR and PRX/BBC’s The World; CFR Member Subscribe to our channel: https://goo.gl/WCYsH7 The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher. Visit the CFR website: http://www.cfr.org Follow CFR on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cfr_org Follow CFR on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/councilonforeignrelations/