It is as if the two big weather systems that animate global politics have clashed over Hong Kong, posits James Kynge, global China editor at the Financial Times. The confrontation between aspirations for greater democracy in Hong Kong and Beijing's authoritarian response is generating fundamental questions: Can Beijing permit greater freedoms in Hong Kong or is a crackdown by security forces inevitable? If China toughens its response, what could that mean for Beijing's relationship with the west and its attempts to woo Taiwan?

James Kynge is global China editor at the Financial Times, based in Hong Kong. He writes about China's growing global footprint in business, finance and politics. He spent more than 25 years reporting from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as other countries in Asia. 

His bestselling 2009 book, China Shakes the World, forecast that China and the US-led west would be unable to co-exist because of fundamental differences in their political and economic systems and that confrontation was inevitable. 

The recipient of several awards for his work, Kynge recently won the Wincott Foundation's top prize for journalism.