The Umbrella Revolution and the Future of China-Hong Kong Relations
In this article, Willy Lam argues that the events of recent weeks represent a turning point in China-Hong Kong relations. The author analyses the multiple facets of the movement in Hong Kong and Beijing's response.
The unprecedented civil-disobedience movement in Hong Kong – known as Occupy Central or the “Umbrella Revolution” – has lasted more than five weeks with no inkling of an endgame. The Beijing leadership under conservative President and Commander-in-Chief Xi Jinping, however, has given clear-cut signals that there are limits to its tolerance of what it considers a frontal challenge to the Chinese Communist Party’s authority.
This is a modified version of an article that originally appeared in the China Brief of the Jamestown Foundation (23 October 2014).
This page contains only a summary of our work. If you would like to have access to all the information from our research on the subject, you can download the full version in PDF format.
The Umbrella Revolution and the Future of China-Hong Kong Relations
China’s Climate Leadership after Hormuz: How Should Europe Adjust?
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in early 2026 offered an unplanned stress test of China’s approach to energy security, and China passed it far better than most expected. The episode demonstrated that the underlying risk of supply disruption is real, while validating a preference for resilience and resource security that has long underpinned Chinese energy and climate policy and has now been reinforced under the banner of building an “energy powerhouse.”
China as an ambivalent supporter of the WTO and the multilateral trading system
Amid rising trade tensions between Europe and China and broader uncertainty in the international rules-based trade regime, Beijing has worked to preserve and bolster the multilateral trading system while at the same time failing to reform the domestic policies that have served to undermine that same system.
Pakistan and the Israel-Palestine Conflict: Transformation in Pakistan’s Approach After the War in Gaza
Pakistan has long combined vocal support for the Palestinian cause with covert engagement with Israel. Since the war in Gaza, this balance has become untenable: public opinion is united against Israel, joining Trump’s Board of Peace has drawn rare cross-party criticism, and new regional alignments put normalization out of reach.
The Oceania Factor in France’s Evolving Indo-Pacific Strategy
This paper examines the two-way relationship between France’s Indo-Pacific strategy and developments in Oceania. Oceania was not a priority in the initial years of France’s Indo-Pacific strategy, as the region was largely treated as secondary to major strategic hotspots and key partnerships, while overseas territories were primarily handled as domestic issues and recipients of a top-down strategy.