Nathan Law facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nathan Law
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羅冠聰
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Law in 2017
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| Chairman of Demosistō | |||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 10 April 2016 – 16 May 2018 |
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| Deputy | Oscar Lai Tiffany Yuen |
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| Leader | Joshua Wong | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Office established | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Ivan Lam | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Legislative Council | |||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 October 2016 – 14 July 2017 |
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| Preceded by | Jasper Tsang | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Au Nok-hin | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Constituency | Hong Kong Island | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 58th Secretary General of Hong Kong Federation of Students | |||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016 |
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| Preceded by | Alex Chow | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Chan Man-hei | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
Luo Guancong (罗冠聪)
13 July 1993 Shenzhen, Guangdong, China |
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| Nationality |
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| Political party | Demosistō (2016–2020) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Education |
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| Occupation | Politician | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Signature |  |
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Nathan Law Kwun-chung (Chinese: 羅冠聰; born on 13 July 1993) is an activist and politician from Hong Kong. He became well-known as a student leader. He was the chairman of the Representative Council of the Lingnan University Students' Union. He also served as the secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS).
Nathan Law was one of the main student leaders during the 79-day Umbrella Movement in 2014. This movement involved large protests for more democracy in Hong Kong. Later, he helped start Demosistō, a political group that grew out of these protests. He was the first chairman of this group.
On 4 September 2016, when he was 23, Law was chosen to be a lawmaker for Hong Kong Island. This made him the youngest person ever to join the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. However, after a debate about how he took his oath, the Hong Kong Government challenged his position. He was removed from the Legislative Council on 14 July 2017.
After a new National Security Law was put in place on 1 July 2020, Nathan Law left Hong Kong for London. He has been living there since. In April 2021, he was given political asylum, which means the UK offered him protection. In July 2023, the Hong Kong police announced they were looking for Nathan Law. They offered a reward for information about him because of his actions related to national security.
In March 2021, Law was named a Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics. In May 2022, he received an honorary doctorate from Washington & Jefferson College. He also gave the main speech at the school's graduation ceremony that year.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Nathan Law was born on 13 July 1993, in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. His father was from Hong Kong, and his mother was from mainland China. When he was about six years old, he moved to Hong Kong with his mother to be with his family. His mother raised him and his siblings mostly by herself.
He went to HKFEW Wong Cho Bau Secondary School. Later, he studied Cultural Studies at Lingnan University. In 2019, he received a full scholarship to Yale University. He began studying for a master's degree in East Asian Studies in August of that year. He finished his master's degree a year later.
Student Activism
Nathan Law was very involved in student activities. He took part in the 2013 Hong Kong dock strike. He became the chairman of the Representative Council of the Lingnan University Students' Union. He was also a committee member of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). Later, he became the acting president of the Lingnan University Students' Union (LUSU).
In September 2014, HKFS and Scholarism started a week-long class boycott. They were protesting against Beijing's decisions on how Hong Kong's leaders would be chosen. After this strike, student protesters entered the Civic Square. This action led to the 79-day Occupy protest.
During the Umbrella Revolution, Nathan Law became one of the key student leaders. In October 2014, he was one of five student representatives who had a televised public discussion with government officials. The government team was led by Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam. Law was also one of three student leaders whose travel documents were taken away. This stopped them from flying to Beijing in November 2014 to ask for more democratic elections. After the protests, he was arrested along with other student leaders.
After the protests, Law took over from Alex Chow as the secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students. He held this position from 2015 to 2016. He won the election with 37 votes from 53 student representatives. During his time as secretary general, some student groups decided to leave the HKFS. They felt the HKFS had made quick decisions during the Umbrella Revolution without enough discussion.
Law worked to keep the Lingnan University Students' Union from leaving the HKFS, and they voted to stay. However, three other student unions from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Baptist University, and City University of Hong Kong did leave the federation. This happened after the Hong Kong University Students' Union had already left in February 2015.
Political Career
Becoming a Lawmaker
In April 2016, Nathan Law and other leaders from the Umbrella Revolution, including Joshua Wong Chi-fung, started a new political group called Demosistō. This group aimed to work for Hong Kong people's right to decide their own future when the "one country, two systems" agreement ends in 2047. Law became the first chairman of this new group. He then decided to run in the 2016 Legislative Council election for Hong Kong Island.
Law received 50,818 votes, which was the second-highest number among all candidates in his area. This meant he was elected. After his win, Law said that people were voting for "a new way and a new future for the democratic movement." He was elected along with other supporters like Lau Siu-lai and Eddie Chu. At 23 years old, Nathan Law became the youngest person ever to be a lawmaker in Hong Kong.
Oath-Taking and Removal from Office
At the first meeting of the Legislative Council, Law and other members used the oath-taking ceremony to make a statement. Law said that the oath ceremony had become a "political tool." He added, "you can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind." When he took the oath, he changed his voice on a certain word to make it sound like a question.
Even though the clerk said Law's oath was valid, a debate started because of how other lawmakers, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching, took their oaths. This led to a legal challenge from the Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen. On 7 November 2016, a top Chinese committee explained how the oath should be taken for public office. Because of this, the court removed Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching from their positions.
Afterward, the government started another legal action against Nathan Law and three other pro-democracy lawmakers: Lau Siu-lai, Yiu Chung-yim, and Leung Kwok-hung. This resulted in them being removed from the Legislative Council on 14 July 2017.
Time in Custody
On 17 August 2017, Nathan Law, along with two other well-known Hong Kong pro-democracy student leaders, Joshua Wong and Alex Chow, were sent to jail. This was for entering Civic Square in 2014. If the sentence had stayed, it would have stopped their political careers for five years. Law was sent to a medium-security facility on Lantau Island.
On 24 October 2017, Nathan Law and Joshua Wong were allowed to leave jail on bail by Hong Kong's chief justice, Geoffrey Ma. Alex Chow chose not to ask for bail and continued his jail term. Law and Wong had to live at their Hong Kong homes and report to the police every week. Law left the court with his girlfriend, Tiffany Yuen. Later, Law and Wong talked on a Hong Kong radio show. Nathan Law shared that one of his supporters named their son after the Chinese word for "aspiration" to remember Hong Kong's hopes for democracy.
On 6 February 2018, the Court of Final Appeal agreed that the three activists were guilty. However, it changed their jail sentences. The court said the jail terms had used a new rule that should not have been applied to past events.
Special Recognition
On 1 February 2018, a group of US lawmakers suggested that Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, Alex Chow, and the entire Umbrella Movement should be nominated for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. This was for their "peaceful efforts to bring political reform and protect the freedoms guaranteed Hong Kong."
Nathan Law was also included in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2020. He also won the reader's poll for the list. In the article, Chris Patten, who was the last British governor of Hong Kong, described Law as a "brave representative of a generation whose spirit the Communist Party wants to stamp out."
Living Abroad
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Hours after a new security law was put in place by Beijing on 30 June 2020, Nathan Law and other leaders of Demosistō left their positions, and the group was closed. On 2 July, he announced that he had left Hong Kong because he was worried about his safety. He asked the international community to keep supporting Hong Kong protesters. He also said he did not know when he would return to Hong Kong. He later announced he was in London. Law met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his visit to the United Kingdom that month. They talked about the situation in Hong Kong and human rights.
On 3 July 2020, he spoke to the US Congress through a video call. He again asked for actions to be taken against Hong Kong and mainland China for putting the national security law in place.
On 7 April 2021, Law announced on Twitter that he had been given asylum in the UK. This means the UK offered him protection. On 9 April 2021, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian criticized the UK for supposedly "harbouring a person wanted by the Hong Kong police." Zhao said the UK's action was "a serious interference in Hong Kong’s legal matters."
On 11 July 2023, after the Hong Kong police issued a list of eight activists living overseas who were wanted, Law's parents and brother in Hong Kong were questioned by the police. They were released the same day.
On 12 June 2024, the Hong Kong government took away Law's passport. This was done using powers given to them under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.
In 2025, Law appeared on the podcast Targeted.
See also
In Spanish: Nathan Law para niños
- United States sanctions against China
- List of people granted asylum
