Why wiping out Hong Kong’s opposition may have cost China a whole generation in Taiwan

But his story could have been very different if he lived in Hong Kong, where student activists once brought the financial hub to a standstill as they took to the streets to demand democracy and freedoms.Lin says he could only watch from afar as nearly all pro-democracy figures in nearby Hong Kong, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of Taipei “China’s plan towards the region is very different from before,” she said. “It is more ambitious, more expansionist, and therefore things that were acceptable to them then may not be acceptable to them now.” In 2019, Beijing proposed a “Taiwanese people indeed realize the importance of cross-strait economic cooperation, and Taiwan’s economy highly depends on China,” he said. “Nevertheless, Taiwanese people are also cautious about how much China can exploit this reliance for political gain.” In 2013, then-Taiwan President Ma proposed the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, which would have opened up key Taiwanese industries — including banking, health care and communications — to investment from mainland China. The trade pact sparked concerns that closer economic integration with Beijing could damage Taipei’s autonomy.”Regional economic integration is an unstoppable global trend. If we do not face this and join in the process, it will only be a matter of time before we are eliminated from the competition,” Ma said. ‘);$vidEndSlate.removeClass(‘video__end-slate–inactive’).addClass(‘video__end-slate–active’);}};CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;var configObj = {thumb: ‘none’,video: ‘tv/2016/01/28/memories-sunflower-movement-on-china.cnn’,width: ‘100%’,height: ‘100%’,section: ‘international’,profile: ‘expansion’,network: ‘cnn’,markupId: ‘body-text_51’,theoplayer: {allowNativeFullscreen: true},adsection: ‘const-article-inpage’,frameWidth: ‘100%’,frameHeight: ‘100%’,posterImageOverride: {“mini”:{“width”:220,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160127232845-memories-sunflower-movement-on-china-00001107-small-169.jpg”,”height”:124},”xsmall”:{“width”:307,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160127232845-memories-sunflower-movement-on-china-00001107-medium-plus-169.jpg”,”height”:173},”small”:{“width”:460,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160127232845-memories-sunflower-movement-on-china-00001107-large-169.jpg”,”height”:259},”medium”:{“width”:780,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160127232845-memories-sunflower-movement-on-china-00001107-exlarge-169.jpg”,”height”:438},”large”:{“width”:1100,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160127232845-memories-sunflower-movement-on-china-00001107-super-169.jpg”,”height”:619},”full16x9″:{“width”:1600,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160127232845-memories-sunflower-movement-on-china-00001107-full-169.jpg”,”height”:900},”mini1x1″:{“width”:120,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160127232845-memories-sunflower-movement-on-china-00001107-small-11.jpg”,”height”:120}}},autoStartVideo = false,isVideoReplayClicked = false,callbackObj,containerEl,currentVideoCollection = [],currentVideoCollectionId = ”,isLivePlayer = false,mediaMetadataCallbacks,mobilePinnedView = null,moveToNextTimeout,mutePlayerEnabled = false,nextVideoId = ”,nextVideoUrl = ”,turnOnFlashMessaging = false,videoPinner,videoEndSlateImpl;if (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === false) {autoStartVideo = false;autoStartVideo = typeof CNN.isLoggedInVideoCheck === ‘function’ ? 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The three-week long protest saw student activists occupy Taiwan’s legislative building in the island’s largest demonstrations in decades.Today, Lin regularly advises President Tsai on key policies. He said Taiwan should reduce its economic reliance on China by building more partnerships with the United States, Japan, and the rest of the world. “We should be aware that China is a country that often uses economic means to interfere in the politics of other nations,” he said. “We will continue to interact economically with China in the future, but we must also keep our distance to minimize the impact of supply chain restructuring or China’s internal instability to Taiwan.”