This dramatic half-decade in Hong Kong began with the biggest demonstrations in the city&rsquo;s history. It is now ending with the conclusion of the biggest political show trials -- in a metropolis that continues to plummet in global rankings of press and civic freedoms. How can we put these developments into perspective and what has been their impact on popular protest movements such as those in Thailand and Myanmar? Drawing on his 2019 visits to Hong Kong and recent interviews with exiles, China specialist Jeffrey Wasserstrom will argue that three comparisons can help. We can compare the tightening of controls on Hong Kong to tumultuous events in Tibet in the 1950s, Beijing at the end of the Cold War and, more unexpectedly, Thailand in the mid-2010s. None of these analogies is perfect but each illuminates some features of events since Wasserstrom finished work on his 2020 book &ldquo;Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink.&rdquo; Join us for this lunchtime discussion and meet the author. Some recent books will be on sale. Speaker:&nbsp;Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author, professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. Moderator: Hui Yee Tan, FCCT board member.