- Pritzker Fellows
- Former Fellows
- Nathan Law
Nathan Law
Activist, Founder & former Chairman of Demosistō & former Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Spring 2021 Pritzker Fellow
Seminar Series: “Hong Kong, Freedom & Activism: Lessons Learned from the Fallen City”
Nathan Law is a young Hong Kong activist, currently in exile and based in London. During the Umbrella Movement in 2014, Nathan was one of the five representatives who took part in the dialogue with the government, debating political reform. Upholding non-violent civil actions, Nathan, Joshua Wong and other student leaders founded Demosistō in 2016 and ran for the Legislative Council election. Nathan was elected with 50,818 votes in the Hong Kong Island constituency and became the youngest Legislative Councilor in history. Yet his seat was overturned in July 2017 following Beijing’s constitutional reinterpretation, despite international criticism. Nathan was later jailed for his participation in the Umbrella Movement. The persecution sparked global concern over Beijing’s crackdown on human rights and democratic movement in Hong Kong. In 2018, Nathan and his fellow student activists Joshua Wong and Alex Chow were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by U.S. congressmen and British parliament members. Due to the risk imposed by the draconian National Security Law, Nathan left Hong Kong and continues to speak up for Hong Kong people on the international level. In 2020, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME.
Seminars
“Hong Kong, Freedom & Activism: Lessons Learned from the Fallen City”
Hong Kong, a city located 1965 KM (1200 miles) south of Beijing, the capital of the People’s Republic China PRC, has not escaped from political persecution initiated by the PRC's sole party, the Chinese Communist Party. Although never a full democracy, Hong Kong was once praised as the freest city in Asia. Today, Hong Kong is widely recognized as an authoritarian state. In the process of the city's loss of freedom, we can observe how the Chinese regime adopted (and continues to adopt) different strategies on civil, legal and political fronts to enforce their will. The demise of freedom in Hong Kong illustrates the fragility of democratic freedom around the world and how an authoritarian regime threatens to destroy it.
In this seminar, I will take students on my journey as a democratic activist in Hong Kong, from the student-launched Umbrella Movement of 2014 to the protests of 2019-2020 to my current exile. Together we will explore how Hong Kong has fallen and the lessons that can be drawn from this story. The determination and courage shown by students and political activists in Hong Kong are a requirement to change society. And while some societies are more tolerant of dissent than others, change always requires some sacrifice. Students will come away from these seminars motivated and empowered to create change in their own communities and embrace the values that better their society no matter what the cost.
For over 150 years, Hong Kong was a British colony. By the end of British rule, the people of Hong Kong enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and financial independence. When sovereignty was transferred to China in 1997, under the Basic Law, the people were promised a governing structure of "One Country, Two Systems," ensuring their way of life would be inherited. With the philosophy of "Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong" and "high degree of autonomy," the people of Hong Kong expected both continued autonomy and an emergent democracy.
But those promises have been broken - democracy never arrived, and freedom has steadily been eroded. In this context, freedom-lovers in Hong Kong decided to step out of their profit-making zone and began to fight for their deserved rights. In this seminar, we start with the city and the people to understand their struggles and the protests that shocked the world.
The Economist released the 2020 annual democracy index earlier this year, and Hong Kong fell twelve places on the index down to 87th in the world, more than ten positions below both Singapore and Thailand. Hong Kong is rated "Partly Free" in Freedom House's annual report Freedom in the World 2021, and the implementation of the National Security Law is heavily criticized and seen as a major threat to freedom in the city.
For at least a decade, freedom has steadily declined in Hong Kong. Yet the speed of deterioration, particularly in freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, has accelerated dramatically in recent years. What stands out about the past few years? What strategies and tools has Beijing deployed to suppress freedoms? What signals can we observe when individual freedoms are being eroded? Through analyzing the story of Hong Kong, we will gain a more thorough understanding of the toolbox that authoritarian regimes possess to limit their citizens' freedoms.
In 2014, I was a student activist in an unprecedented civil disobedience movement known as the Umbrella Movement; in 2016, I was founding chairperson of a new political party and became the youngest elected lawmaker in Hong Kong's history; in 2017, I was evicted from the chamber and became a political prisoner; in 2020, I am exiled in London. Throughout the years of my participation in the political movement, I have shouldered different duties and played different roles. All of them are difficult, and they took different skills, awareness, and understandings to excel. In this seminar, I will share my experiences throughout the years and guide you to understand the meanings behind being an activist, a protestor, an organizer, and a legislator.
All of us are connected to the community in which we live. We all have our issues of concern - racial injustice, poverty, climate emergencies, or local community issues. A strong and vibrant civil society protects the general public's interests and addresses the problems deep-rooted in our systems. We are the beneficiaries of the freedoms that we enjoy, and the guardians of them. In this session, students will share their aspirations and commitment to shaping a better future for our communities and the world. Together we will look into actions to channel your message to a larger audience and ways to become a change maker. It's a dialogue about your beliefs, enthusiasm, and empowerment, and together, we will be the change we want to see.