A panel very familiar with Hong Kong – and China more generally – will look at the background leading to the recent protests, examine the implications for Hong Kong itself as well as more generally for the region including the impact on business confidence, especially as it affects New Zealand interests. Professor Brian Moloughney of the University of Otago specialises in Chinese history and has held senior positions at that university as well as at Victoria University of Wellington. He is Associate Director of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre based at VUW. Ambassador Clifford Hart Jr, was United States Consul-General in Hong Kong from 2013-2016, after a career that had also seen him serve several times in mainland China. A member of the US Council on Foreign Relations, he is a frequent speaker on China and North Asia matters. Mark Russell, a strategic communications specialist and owner of the PR firm Hot Meta Communications, is the immediate Past President of the Hong Kong Kong/New Zealand Business Association, and was for a number of years Assistant Foreign Editor of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.