Trailblazing pro-democracy activist Nathan Law joins Andrew Mueller to discuss his new memoir and how he went from being Hong Kong’s youngest legislator to living in political exile in the UK. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
I think one thing that as a political activist, when you are in jail that you have to overcome is that they want to numb your critical thinking.
They want you to conform, they want you to give up on what you're pursuing.
And I think that is the biggest challenge when you are an activist and you are being thrown to jail.
Nathan Law was the youngest representative ever elected to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and one of its last Democrats.
In 2016, aged just 23, the former student activist won a seat as part of the party he had founded, Demosisto.
He was disqualified 10 months later after refusing to swear allegiance to the People's Republic of China with appropriate solemnity.
Very shortly after that, Law was sentenced to eight months in prison for his role in leading Hong Kong's massive pro democracy protests of 2014.
Though that sentence, if not the conviction, was eventually struck down by Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal.
A new security law imposed on Hong Kong by China in 2020 clearly had people who think like Law very much in mind.
He was granted asylum in the UK in 2021.
Law has distilled some of what he has learned along the way into a book called How We Lose it and How We Fight Back.
I'm Andrew Muller and I spoke to Nathan Law on the Big Interview.
Nathan Law, welcome to the Big Interview.
Well, thank you so much for having me.
You've been in London now, I think, nearly three years.
Yeah, nearly three years.
Granted asylum after leaving Hong Kong.
This is possibly a strange question, but how safe do you ever manage to feel?
It's difficult to say that I'm completely safe because we all understand how extensive China's reach could be.
But I think the raising awareness of China's global authoritarian expansion and how they well, operate outside of China, I think for now especially, the government is well aware of the fragility of Hong Kong exile activists.