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Nathan Law

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2021-07-01

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2021-07-01

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1. “Is a process that we have to continue to refine it and new challenges emerging every day. And that's the reason why I think protest is crucial for democratic society because protest is acting like preemptive wrongdoing to the society when things go wrong. People come out to protest and the government, if the government listens to it, then it could enhance its political system. That was a lesson learned also for me to watch through the development of the US politics for the past year.”

   2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “There are a lot of in a society that champion free speech. We will listen to a lot of criticism, perspective, and opinion. But at the end of the day, the fact that we can listen to so diverse narrative and opinion from people is already a blessing. If the same thing happens in men and China, they only have one media tone. So I just feel like Is it well for me? I think that is no perfect democratic system, as David used that democracy is a project, is an ongoing process.”

   2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “Even though we've got such a disturbance into our legitimate democratic process, but we can see a rebound of the society that the transition was at the end of the day relatively peaceful, it's difficult to say that it was smooth because there were so many incidents happening. But eventually they made it. And even though in this divisive politics, in this very turbulent times, they still managed to have a transfer of power, which is a testing stone of whether a system is democratic or not. And after the insurrection, there has been a lot of discussion, a lot of investigation. And I just feel like sometimes”

   2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “Yes, I've been following it quite closely. Definitely I'm not an expert on it, but the political development of US indeed shows certain worries about democracy, especially under the age of social media, the echo chain, but the tripolized weight of understanding reality or even an annihilation of objective reality, loss of truth. These are worrying signs for democracy because in democracy we need to have deliberation. We need to have discussion. But what if all parts of the world have different understanding of the facts and truth, there will be no meaningful discussion. So I think this is something that we definitely have to work on. But I also see strength in democratic system, especially after the January”

   2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “And that is an eagerness of doing so because Xi Jinping, the regeneration of the nations, this project is heavily reliant on the narrative of a reunification. And for Taiwanese people, they would see it as an annexation. And so we've come up to this point that there is an intention from the Chinese Communist Party that they wanted Taiwan. But in Taiwan and luckily unfortunately the allies of Korea, Japan and US under the US leadership says really loud that military intimidation to Taiwan is not acceptable. So I think the argument will continue. China will continue to harass Taiwan in welfare ways that they can and to prove that Xi Jinping still wants to have a military conquer on Taiwan.”

   2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Beginning of the one country two system, Den Xiaoping says that it was actually setting an example for Taiwan because when there is a so-called peaceful reunification, Taiwan will also adopt the one country, two system of Hong Kong. But throughout the years, when we saw the protest movement in Hong Kong in 2019, we immediately realized that one country to system is not working for Taiwan. And in their presidential election, Taiwan won with a large margin, and it was seen as Taiwanese people saying no to Chinese influence and basically saying that it's impossible for us to conduct any quote-unquote reunification with you. So the last resort of the Chinese Human Rights Party will definitely go for military routes.”

   2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Yes, definitely, but I think the perception has been changing. There have been too much economic blackmailing bullying from men in China that forced the countries to rethink their reliance on it. Norway, they were punished after they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Lu Xiaobo, Australia. They are punished because they appealed for a thorough investigation on the origin of the COVID pandemic in Wuhan. Canada, they were punished because they had arrested Mamanjou, the leaders, one of the leaders of Huawei. Chinese center enterprise that closely related to the Chinese army, there are so many examples of that. And I think A lot of countries are just recognizing that if they are relying on a region that all of its economic power can be politically weaponized, there is a huge fragility of it”

   2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “Formal recognition to that regime, for example, stop diplomatic delegation of major events when they're hosting. I think these things could definitely contribute to a lot of doubts of their people to the regime. Well, that's the way that we could trigger more concerns from his people to his regime and resort other pathway to legitimize it.”

   2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “Reliance of the other countries on China's protection because of political pressure. And it becomes a vicious cycle as economy will only go worse when it's extreme nationalism cultivates. And by the time there will be voice of resorting legitimacy from other pathway, it could be people's participation. It could be something else. We don't know yet. By looking at China's situation in that lens, the only thing that the international community should do is to be in solidarity. We have to continue to decrease our reliance on China. We have to continue to put more scrutiny on their state enterprise into our countries and the infiltration, the expansion of shop power and soft power, and also decrease any”

   2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “In an aging society, they are having struggle on industrial transformation. There are so unrest because I'm very pressured a working environment and society culture. There are problems in rural conflicts in rural and developed areas. They are also a regime that they have to tackle a lot of problems because all of their legitimacy are resulted by nationalism and economic growth. And whenever there is a slow, massive slow in their economic growth, they need to resort to other path to gain legitimacy. And that's why the increasingly extreme natural analysis emerged, but it has international isolation and also let's”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “I think China has always been confident, at least for the past five years in terms of their development and the trajectory and the way that they despise the so-called Western values or the universal values make them so aggressive towards all these allegations and all these concerns over its human rights violation. This is definitely the way that they would act no matter they are feeling the heat or they're just too confident they are always going to tell the audience in mainland China that they are not going to listen to the West and they're going to go for their own path. But I believe that it doesn't mean that they don't feel the heat or they are not pressured because of the coordinated actions. In China there are lots of internal and external problems they're experiencing.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “And a clear objective and goals of it is easy for the authoritarian countries like China to crack our collaboration and try to divide and conquer tactics in our alliance. If we are still complacent towards the expansion of these authoritarian regimes, we will lose gold opportunity to curb that. I believe that we just have to see the global democratic recession as a crisis, as the way we treat climate emergency, as the way we treat poverty, that we will have certain global goals. We have institutions and bodies that helps to craft all the policy we need. And we have to implement it coordinatedly. the only way forward to stop tyrannies from coming out again. And to stop people from being suppressed in those regions”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “Well, I think the weight of rebuilding the transatlantic relationship is definitely a good sign on how we can consolidate efforts. On tackling the rights of authoritarian expansion of China. And I think only by having coordinated actions from around the world, we could successfully curb their aggression and also hold them accountable. So I think for now we're heading into the right direction. And in the G7's statement, Hong Kong was mentioned, Taiwan was mentioned, Xinjiang was mentioned. These three issues are undoubtedly the most heated topics of human rights violation in mainland China. And I think we just have to continue to put attention to it. But eventually what I really want or what I really hope is these leaders to treat the global democratic recession as a genuine crisis they've been trying to do in it with individual capacity, individual issues. But if we are lacking coordination,”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “Right, I have a subscription surface for my political commentators, and I also write op-eds to newspapers. So I think it's important that we have to support ourselves. And also we have to continue to deliver new thoughts and new understandings of the world to the people in Hong Kong and to the people around the world. A large part of my work focuses on how to digest Hong Kong situation and translate it into a format that external audience are more easy to digest. And also digesting the global development political dynamics into a perspective that Hong Kong people could see these changes impact Hong Kong impact China. So, this is something that I am doing, and I think providing this knowledge, invigorating understanding and discussion on it is also important”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “But after I got the asylum status, I had more confidence in my personal safety because I finally have a legal status in the UK and I became more active in terms of interacting with people and outreaching to community so that I think it's just a path is a trajectory that I have to go through.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “A really good question. So, my assignment application was granted in April, but before that, I had moved for four times because I was worried about my personal safety. I had been reframing myself from going out or attending public events because I was worried about Chinese agents or Esplanage activities. We all understand how extensive these authoritarians reach could be. And for me, being situated in a position that actually had never taken place, there have not been a prominent Hong Kong activist being in exile and also committing himself fully into the International Advocacy Work in the history. So that was a new role and I don't know how the Chinese Communist Party would react to it. So I add very discreetly.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Agency takes empowerment. It takes a lot of energy to do so. So I create a term for that. I describe as fertilization, which you kind of vary your negative emotion and let the time goes and then it becomes something that helps you to nurture better ideas, nurture new life, transforming something, bad emotion into positive energy and momentum. I think this is just the lesson that every exile activist or anyone in the DAS profession have to go through.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “That is always a sense of a survival guilt for me. It is not because I think that I have done anything wrong, but it's because that when I see my fellows who share the same pursuit, same worries, share the same beliefs as I. They have sacrificed not more than I. by the fact that they are in jail and I'm not it's already a top train idea for me to continue to live like that on the other hand it's just part of the emotion I See it as a process of how to transform these rather negative emotions into a positive one because I know that grieving myself doesn't help, but actively engaging into the political discussion to promote your stories and Hong Kong stories and urge the world to adopt a more assertive approach to China. These are the things that help and it takes”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “Was like the most gorgeous night cityscape that I think that you have seen in the world. And I was watching it, enjoy it, and I was thinking that that could probably be the last time that I could watch the city, the city that I've been fighting for for past years, that I served, that I jailed for it, that was jailed for it. That was probably the last time I saw this fantastic night feel. So that was really emotional. By the time I realized that I had to embark a journey that I don't really have knowledge about.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “Yeah, it was extremely emotional. I remember that. Exact day when I finished dinner with my family, I had a backpack and I had a can carry with me can carry suitcase with me and I departed to the airport. I couldn't talk to them. I couldn't explain my decision because I was afraid that by the fact they knew that I was leaving, they would be submitted to government's prosecution. They would be arrested because they were colluding with me in government's time. So I didn't have any opportunity to explain to them, to tell them how much I love them and to say a proper goodbye. When I arrived at the airport, I was so nervous, and when I successfully boarded the plane and it was taxiing and it flew to the sky, and I was sitting by the window and I looked back to Hong Kong. As we all know, Hong Kong has fantastic feel.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “The National Security Law, some of it, some of the cases were just because the arrests chanted certain slogan, sang certain songs, display certain leap flags or flags that has certain political belief. And another landmark case for the primary election, 47 democratic campaigners arrested because they were hosting primary election for their own camp and they were arrested under the National Security Law. So by just observing those cases, you could really see that those vaguely defined national security law is used to become a legal weapon to prosecute democratic activists.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “When I was trying to leave Hong Kong, I had worries that whether my name was blacklist, whether they would block me from leaving in the airport. But eventually it didn't happen. And I was lucky because my passport was not confiscated. I was not arrested by the time because of protest-related cases. So that's why I managed to leave and probably because for the past year for most of the past year, I was studying in the US, so I kind of like get out of the radar because of that. But eventually, when I left, we could really see the impact of the national security law immediately after it was implemented. Up until now, it's almost a year and the police had made more than 100.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “Two months before the implementation of the National Security Law, we heard about the government was going to propose a law like that. We didn't know about the details at the beginning. But when the time goes in early or in mid-June, we finally knew that it was such a draconian law that our freedom of speech will be curtailed severely. So at the end of June, I had to think about what is my next move because I believe that it's important that we preserve a voice that could speak up for Hong Kong and to continue international advocacy work free from the threat of the national security law. So that was the main reason why I flee Hong Kong to London just before it was implemented.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “Yeah, in March 2020, when I finished my studies in the US and I came back Hong Kong, I decided to run alongside with Joshua and other protest leaders for the election because there was supposedly an election in 2020. So that was my purpose of going back to Hong Kong. I want to continue to serve the people even though the council is so rigged and the election is so rigged. But we want to challenge that.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “Well, I always feel like seeing things in a ritual's bacteria angle is difficult because for now I have much more knowledge than the one that I made decision. But in hindsight, no, I think everything I did was for my belief I did without any consideration of personal interest. And that was all that I could do. I devoted all of myself and my very best to the struggle of Hong Kong even though I ended up losing my seat, being imprisoned now in exile, never going to visit my family in Hong Kong as long as the Chinese Communist Party is there, even though it ended up like this. I still feel like I have done my part and I'm proud of it.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “She didn't tell me when she visited me. I just felt like it's difficult to balance everything. At first, I didn't know that it impacted her so much. And I realized that it's difficult to balance your duties in family and your duties in society when the society became so bad. And if you want to carry or shoulder the responsibility as an activist to go against injustice, then you must sacrifice the responsibility in family.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “Yeah, when I was in jail, I could see my families once a week for 30 minutes. I remember whenever my mother visited me, she pretends to be happy. She pretends to be glad to see it. It's easy to see through her disguise because we have been living together for decades. And I learned that from my friends, from her friends that she was so troubled by the fact that I was in prison when she was doing cleaning duty for people's home she cut herself with a really deep wound. And I learned that from a friend of mine.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Yes, definitely. I think the stories of these great people, other things that supported my mental health actually when I was in jail, when I was in jail, I read a lot of autobiography of these great civil rights leaders, democratic fighters, because I want to learn how they can manage to go through all these much more torturing experiences like Gandhi. He's been in jail for decades. Dr. King, he's been arrested for more than 30, 40 times. There were lots of sufferings, but they managed to uphold their belief at the end of the day. So what triggered them, I think that was the answer that I want to have because, well, compared to them, what I had suffered was minimal. But I had already felt difficulties of going through. Experience. So I think it's important that I learn from them.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “So one month after I was unseated, I got a verdict on court and I had to go to jail because of that That was actually a huge blow for me. I had a period of time that I had to adjust myself and just felt depressed because of that.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “Well, definitely the Chinese government has always been afraid of the spill-up effect, which the movement in Hong Kong affects any parts of the people or the regions in mainland China. So they have had a huge internet firewall to block out all this information and promote their own narrative, which stigmatizes all the democratic fighters and movement in Hong Kong.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “I think the Chinese government just felt the heat. They didn't want so many legislators in the council that severely challenged them and bring issues that make them uncomfortable. For example, issues of democracy, issue of the rights of people to design its future. So that's why they had another round of political suppression by disqualifying legislators.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “So, I was seen as not playing their allegiance to the country in a very narrowly defined way. And after nine months that I served the council, I was effected more than 50,000 ballots from the photos attorney into the trash can.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “The rights of reincharging the constitution of defining the Constitution lies on the courts, whether it is Supreme Court or constitutional courts. But in our system, the right lies on the hands of the National People's Conquest Standing Committee, which those are the people who only think about things in political aspect. And they make decisions to benefit the Chinese Communist Party instead of following the rule of law. So they made reinterpretation in order to add new requirements into the oath-taking ceremony and considering those people who have said something before and after the oath taking ceremony as illegitimate when they interpret those things as insincere or not playing allegiance to the country.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “Yes, so a month after the election victory, we had to swoon in and we had a tradition of adding phrases before and after the whole oath in order to demonstrate our political belief. I had consulted with a legal opinion and I decided to add in quotes from Gandhi and words to say that I am there to represent the people, to serve the people instead of a regime that brutally kills its people. So I made that very clear. And after the swearing in ceremony, the Chinese government didn't like the way that we take our oath. And they decided to implement political persecution on us. The way that they do is they reinterpret our constitution, which in advanced countries.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “Yeah, it was quite unbelievable, actually, to have sweep like that. And I think it really shows that Hong Kong people want fresh faces and they want people not only they can lead protesters, but they can also really talk about concrete policies and having a strong way of understanding of the society. So I guess that was really an empowering moment for all of us.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “I was a protest leader, but didn't know that I had to capacity to talk about policies or have the experience of relative knowledge on bringing something that can be realized and meaningful to the society. But during that time, my campaign really hot. And I think what overturned people's expectations and their thoughts about me were my performance in the election forums, which we in our tradition, we had a couple of the public forums organized by TV stations. And in that forum, I demonstrate a weight of talking about policy reasoning and people felt like, oh, he was not someone that I imagined. I guess those perceptions were overturned and subsequently supports consolidated. Wong Di Neshin by having the second highest votes in 15 lists.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “The Elysian took place in September 2016. And a month before that, the first poor data came out. I was only having 1% of supporting rate. So we were running in a constituency that had the highest education, the most wealthy one, most aged one, and people consider legislators from that constituencies as professionals, those winners of the district. They were all lawyers, ex-government officials, respected academia, etc. So when I was running for those six seats because it was proportional election a month before I was unpopular, I guess people just felt like I was still an undergrad student.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “The factory of my election was an underdog story. So at first when I found demo sister with Joshua and Agnes, we wanted to inject the youth energy into the political scene because a lot of Hong Kong people criticized the traditional parties of becoming aging and not reflecting what young protesters thinking in the ordinary political setting. So by then we found a party together.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “Yeah, so in 2014, the umbrella movement ended and in 2017 when I served the legislature for more than nine months, I was unseated. And then a month later, after this qualification, in 2017, August, I was out of jailed because of my participation in the 2014 Berlin movement. It took three years for the government to put me in jail.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “By the time we were in 2014, we expect months of imprisonment, but for now it's years, even though you do the same thing. So it's always difficult to predict what persecutions that are laying ahead of you. What you can do is you just have to adjust yourself step by step. And by the time that you recognize you are bearing the consequence and the persecution of the government the only thing that you could do is to try to keep your mind calm and treat it normal mind. Otherwise it's unbearable.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “Yeah, I think that is a really good question for a lot of us when we first discussed about being involved in politics, political movement, protesting on the streets. Of course, we had certain expectation on what's coming to us, but most of the time are not the precise prediction. And for example, at the beginning when we were protesting, we didn't realize that at the end of the day that Hong Kong will become the shape that it is now like having a national security law, people's freedom of speech are being restricted. And when you first go to protest, of course, for me, I had preparation of being arrested, being charged, being jailed. And that was what I had been through. I served jail time for more than two months. It is not a long non-length of sentencing compared to the ones now.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “Was already in the middle of the umbrella movement when I had a chance to really talk to her. By the time she met me, what she could say was just tell me, try to keep safe, try not to be intimidated or get injured when I was protesting. But of course, afterwards she had tell me that It should not be so high profile. I should not be involved in all these things. But by the time she recognized that she's unable to change my devotion because I see it as my vocation, she slowly go to a more pacified position, just try to tell me to keep safe, but not really discouraging me from doing so.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “Yeah, so it was actually an interesting story. I didn't tell my mom that I was involved in all these social affairs or student union movement because I knew that she would be really worried. But eventually the way that he recognized that I was involved was she was in a wedding boutique and she was chatting with her friends. They were happy. And by the time she looked up to the television, she saw the scene of her son being arrested by plain cove police simultaneously. And she kind of shocked by what she saw and she immediately find my friends find my brothers to know what had happened on me. And that was the time she recognized that I am devoting myself into the movement into the course. And yeah, that was quite a remarkable story.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “So when I entered a university, I was with the thought of getting involved in social movement because I considered myself half an intellect. And when I think that when we were talking about political reform in that year, in the year 2014, I realized that there is a need for students who has always been the spearhead of change in society to be involved. So I ran for the student union and then eventually we became one of the leading organizations in the democratic movement.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “My high school was a pro-Beijing one. It was operated by the pro-Beijing Institution. I remember that I didn't really know much about Liu Xiaobo or about the efficacy work that he had committed in human rights or in freedom. But something happened really made me very curious about all of these things. So on the next day of Liu Xiaobo getting his Nobel Peace Prize, our school's principles on the morning assembly publicly criticized him. And by then, I was curious because I learned that noranties of Nobel Prize are the people who have been excellent in that field. So how come such a person being criticized? So I looked up for what he had done and that kind of opening up a gate for me to understand human rights situation in many China and all sorts of things. So that kind of like brainwashing education in a probability.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “Yes, yes, I think part of the reason is they're afraid. They've been through a lot to come to Hong Kong and to try to live in a relatively stable situation. And they are afraid of their families, their children getting persecuted by the government if they are speaking too loud. So that's the reason why we didn't really talk about politics.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “Yeah, so when I was growing up, I would describe the way that my parents behave as having refugee mentality, so what they want is to have stability because they've been through extremely unstable time. And for them, even though they know that there are problems in the society, they know that the government's ruling, the Trans Communist Party is bad because they had been through what a poor government looked like. But they still do not intend to get involved in social movement or in politics because they think that that is not for them, that is dangerous, that is.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “Yeah, so my parents separated when I was in high school. So it was really tough for that. But my mother raised three of us together. So that was a remarkable achievement for her. And I'm truly grateful for that.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “Live through basically through my life in Hong Kong in public housing. My father was a constructor, was a builder, my mother was a cleaner, a typical working class family that there were some occasions we had to rely on government's funding subsidies to put foods on table. So it hasn't been an affluent background for me. And most of the time when your parents are living through those conditions, they want you to be a provider. They want stability. That was how they teach me, try to get a good job, try to provide for the family. But eventually I did something that they could have never expected. I stepped into the Step into the arena of ativism and eventually to politics and they were very worried when they first learned that I was on protest sites, I was becoming a student leader, but that was the rest of the story.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “You could still get the citizenship. So, my father did that, and he met my mother later. And when I was born in Hong Kong in 1993, we reunioned China in 1993. We reunioned in Hong Kong in 1999 when I was six. So that was how I managed to come from mainland China to Hong Kong.”

    2021-07-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 450 — Nathan Law · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source