Democracy is hard won and easily lost. Never has that been more clear than now.

In fact, it is fair to say the world is in a democratic recession.

Political scientist Yascha Mounk points out in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs journal: "For the first time since the last 19th century, the cumulative GDP of autocracies now equals of exceeds that of Western liberal democracies".

Democracy is being assailed from without and within: on the one hand the rise of autocratic regimes, specifically China, and on the other the dominance of global multilateralism that has weakened national sovereignty.

Both have sparked a blowback.

Which is where Brexit and the Hong Kong protests come in.

They are movements geographically worlds apart yet linked by history and a common desire for people to hold on to time worn traditions and identity.

The hinge point of history

Hong Kong was a reminder to Beijing of what the Chinese people refer to as the "century of humiliation".

Its return to the motherland in 1997, symbolised China's resurgent power and crowned what we now call the Asian Century.

Hong Kong reminds Beijing of what the Chinese call the "century of humiliation".

At a tense moment in negotiations then Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, turned to British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and warned that the Chinese army could just march in and take it.

Today Britain has faded as a global power and China is the only rival to American global dominance.

Both events sit at the hinge point of history.

China is a 'fragile superpower'

Liberalism and democracy are being challenged right at the moment when authoritarianism appears to be ascendant.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is the embodiment of this. He is a populist nationalist, now President for life, whose "China Dream" rejects western values.

He leverages his nation's financial might to build a network of transactional relationship that brings countries from the Pacific, to Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa ever closer to Beijing's orbit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is a populist nationalist. ( AP: Ng Han Guan )

He speaks of a "harmonious society", but achieves it by force: locking up dissidents, silencing freedom of expression, suppressing ethnic Tibetans and Uighur Muslims.

Hong Kong is the mouse that roared. The summer of people power has challenged the Xi iron fist. It is an assertion of identity against Communist Party one-China rule.

It exposes Xi's weakness: for all of China's increasing military strength and global reach the Communist Party lacks legitimacy.

It rules by the promise of making people rich; Hong Kong was already rich, a virulent anti-western Chinese nationalism and fear.

In spite of its impressive economic revolution, it remains what China watcher, Susan Shirk, has dubbed "a fragile superpower".

No one knows how the Hong Kong protests will turn out. Xi has shown restraint thus far. But the worst fears are of an eventual Tiananmen Square type crackdown: a horrific thought.

The demonstrations may burn themselves out. The protesters could sabotage their own ends by the crowds becoming more raucous, unruly and violent, losing public and international support.

What is clear though: China's rise to global superpower, while still on track, is not a fait accompli and will certainly not be a smooth process.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 47 seconds 47 s Carrie Lam says she would quit Hong Kong leadership. ( ABC News )

An empire's faded glory

Over in Britain the glories of empire have long faded.

It is caught between a future pooling its sovereignty with Europe or breaking away with all the uncertainty and upheaval that involves.

Brexit is a mess. It has cost two Prime Ministers, Cameron and May, and produced a cleavage in British social and political life.

The cosmopolitan city dwellers are pro-Europe, the regions want out.

There are two Britains: what political writer, David Goodhart, has succinctly dubbed "the somewheres", wedded to tradition and community, and the "anywheres", globe trotting elites.

In anywheres circles it is fashionable to mock the somewhere Brexiteers as unsophisticated, ill-informed bigots longing for an old white Britain long past.

These same anywheres would just as likely be cheering the Hong Kong protesters from afar.

Brexit has split Britain: cosmopolitan city dwellers are pro-Europe, the regions want out. ( AP: Matt Dunham )

Twin threats

Yet, aren't those in Hong Kong also fighting for their identity?

Our age is defined by challenges to democracy, from authoritarian behemoths like China and from a liberal globalisation, open borders, free trade, that has led to increasing inequality, a distrust of politics, a loss of cultural cohesion.

An oft-repeated complaint by people that they "have lost their countries" has sparked a populist backlash against immigration and given rise to an arch-nationalism that feeds off fear and xenophobia.

It is ripe pickings for cynical, even dangerous, populist politicians.

It is a paradox of globalism that as it has helped to share prosperity and spread democracy it has also made it easier for China to wield its influence by including it in its frameworks and institutions like the World Trade Organisation.

China did not have to liberalise, it could take the best of economic freedom and double down on its stranglehold on power at home.

Little wonder that a Communist Party authoritarian like Xi a few years ago at the Global Economic Forum could proclaim himself, with no irony, a champion of globalism.

Globalism and authoritarianism: each in their own way, twin threats to democracy that link the people of Hong Kong and Britain.

If the Hong Kong protesters are the voices against mainland China dominance then the pro-Brexit voters are voices against European rule, the perceived hegemony of France and Germany, and a desire for Britain to take back control of its borders and economy.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 51 seconds 51 s Carrie Lam says the leaking of her comments is unacceptable. ( Photo: AP, ABC News )

The 21st century may see the death of democracy.

What is upheld as the global liberal order, the bedrock of international cooperation and growth since World War II, is on tilt.

Both movements in Hong Kong and Britain may prove a vain last gasp resistance against the tides of history.

The return of authoritarianism and the reality of globalism may well be set in stone. They may presage a very different global order, the shape of which is not yet known.

The question is: does democracy matter?

If yes, then as we admire the Hong Kong protesters we must respect the Brexit voters.

It is the will of the British people to exit Europe. They have expressed their democratic right, a treasured British inheritance the people of Hong Kong are also staring down the might of Beijing to uphold.

Brexit may not prove the wisest decision, it has already wreaked political havoc, but democracy does not always guarantee wisdom.

Democracy throws up poor leaders and bad policy. Democracy means having the right to get it wrong.

But it offers the chance to right the wrong. And that is just what the people of Hong Kong are fighting for.