On the same day the student-led “umbrella revolution” erupted in Hong Kong in September 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed a rare delegation from the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan. Describing Taiwan’s absorption into mainland China as an “historical inevitability”, Mr Xi suddenly lobbed a verbal missile into the ornate chamber in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

“The basic guideline for the Taiwan question is ‘peaceful reunification; one country, two systems’ and it is also the best way to realise national reunification,” he said.

The delegation was shocked. At that very moment many in the former British colony of Hong Kong — the test bed for China’s formula of “one country, two systems” — were taking to the streets in anger over Beijing’s rule.