Season 2, Episode 2 | Malcolm Rifkind on the transfer of power in Hong Kong

The Bertelsmann Foundation and Aspen Institute are pleased to announce the release of season two’s second episode in the Leadership in Action series, featuring former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind recounting the events leading to the UK’s handover of Hong Kong to China.

In Leadership in Action’s season two, episode two, former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind goes back in time to the 1990s, to examine the steps leading to the transfer of power in Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China. This episode offers a unique account of the contentious dialogue between London and Beijing that aimed to preserve democracy in Hong Kong after the British departure.

A quarter century later, Rifkind assesses the state of the constitutional principle of “one country, two systems” that was the foundation for maintaining democratic governance and rule of law in Hong Kong. With political turmoil now stretching across mainland China, and tensions rising in the Taiwan Strait, there’s never been a more critical moment to learn the lessons of the Hong Kong handover than there is today.