Evolving “China factor” in Hong Kong and Taiwan’s contentious politics: a social movement studies perspective

The proposed research design aims to diachronically examine social movements trajectories by investigating the potential nexus between the evolving People Republic of China’s policies and the strategic repertoires employed by social movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Adopting a strategic-relational perspective, the research endeavour proposed here focuses on understanding to what extent and how social movements activity in Hong Kong and Taiwan has been influenced by major structural changes occurring in the external environment beyond their immediate domestic realm – e.g., changing PRC’s policies in a twelve-year time (2012 – 2024). In doing so, the research also aims to contribute to update the “political opportunity” framework in the classic agenda of social movement studies – namely, the set of theories aimed at the understanding of how social movements activities are influenced by the surrounding environment. As the pursuit of the China’s national interests concerning Hong Kong and Taiwan becomes ever more intense as the PRC uses its rising international economic status to achieve its political goals, the so-called “China factor”, namely the influence exerted by the PRC through its policies, is considered one the main cleavages in Hong Kong and Taiwan’s politics and political participation. As a result, relationship between social movements and their surrounding environment in these contexts needs to be understood beyond the domestic level, to include opportunities and constraints which originate in the international realm. By doing so, the research aims to contribute to the agenda of social movements studies by bringing back a long-missing international perspective to the study of contentious politics.