During the middle years of the last decade, I had a front-row seat to what seemed like potential epochal change unfurling across East Asia.

During the middle years of the last decade, I had a front-row seat to what seemed like potential epochal change unfurling across East Asia.

Landing in Taipei in March 2014, I witnessed some of the most stirring moments of what had come to be known as the Sunflower Movement, a series of gigantic rallies of civil society and—most of all—young people who filled the streets to affirm their right to their identity as Taiwanese and their attachment to democratic rule.

Visiting Hong Kong two years later, I reported on what would be the last big push in a historic wave of political protests in that unique city. These had begun in 2014 under the name of the Umbrella Movement, which centered on demands for reforms of the tightly controlled electoral system, and culminated in 2016, with big pro-independence rallies for the first time in Hong Kong’s history.

On the surface, there were only loose links between these two sets of protests, but underneath, the connections were profound. Both were aimed at ensuring the survival of a degree of political autonomy and cultural space in the face of mounting pressures from what was then still a fast-rising People’s Republic of China.

The interests that these two vastly smaller societies held in common were more than passing matters of the moment, though. In a way seldom seen in the world, the one, Hong Kong, stood out in real time as a living laboratory, or test case, for the other, Taiwan. And in this experiment, from the perspective of both of these places, China was failing.

When Chinese rule over Hong Kong was restored in 1997, ending the 156-year run of British colonial dominion, the political agreement for a peaceful handover from London was achieved through some remarkably supple diplomacy by both sides. There had never been any question that Hong Kong was part of China, or that Beijing could have reasserted its rule over this southeastern extremity with minimal force if it chose to. In fact, during parts of the late 20th century, a cakewalk like this would have been applauded by many Hong Kongers.

Hoping to win over many more people, both in Hong Kong and around the world, Deng Xiaoping wisely resisted this........

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