The Sunflower, the Umbrella and the Square: how three protest movements in 2014 foreshadowed Russia and China's foreign policy approaches in 2022

The world in 2014 and the world in 2022 are miles apart. However, if one were to ask Ukrainians in Maidan Square, Hongkongers in Central or the Taiwanese occupying the Legislative Yuan in 2014, they would likely have recognised the world of 2022 as the culmination of all the fears that inspired them to action. Three protest movements emerged in 2014 in opposition to an increasing assertiveness and revisionism in Moscow and Beijing that sought to align the histories of Ukraine, Hong Kong (HK) and Taiwan with the modern reality of Russia and China’s borders. The fears enunciated in those protest movements and how they were policed offer disturbing parallels with the lived experience of Ukrainians, Hongkongers, and Taiwanese in the intervening years.