December 3, 2020 - 3:02pm
Arguably the most famous Hong Kong dissident alive today, Nathan Law has become one of the most recognisable faces of the pro-democracy movement in his homeland. Having been at the forefront of protests against the controversial Hong Kong national security law over the summer, the democracy activist was subsequently forced to flee Hong Kong over fears for his safety. The departure proved timely: just this week three of his fellow activists (including Joshua Wong) were arrested and sentenced to 10-13 months in prison.
Nathan now lives in the UK, which took the unprecedented step earlier this year of offering residency to any holder of a British National overseas passport in Hong Kong. Up to three million Hongkongers are eligible for this residency, and according to Nathan, as many as 100,000 people could arrive in the first year. That is a substantial figure, and one that will present Boris Johnson’s government with a potentially difficult question on how to accommodate for such an influx.
Nathan speaks fondly of his adopted home, and is hopeful that his presence here is not a sign of failure but a signal for change. He told Freddie Sayers that the West must be more aware of the threat from China and hold them accountable for human rights violations in Xinjiang and foreign interference in states like his own. He also spoke about his blue collar upbringing and his experience in moving from China to join his family in Hong Kong at a young age, which gave him a valuable insight into events today.
We hope you enjoy the interview and thank you to Nathan for giving us the time.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeI’m sure the HK Chinese coming will be entrepreneurial, smart and industrious, so I look forward to their arrival. But be warned guys, democracy seems to be slipping away from us under the cover of COVID!
Democracy has been hijacked the same way it was in Rome, and thus the decline and end. The people were divided, made dependent on political party handouts, and thus voting blocks created which were not first for the Nation, but self interested, and thus bought. A democracy where the voters are first out to get favors, and last to make the nation strong, brings terminal decline. The Biden win was this.
Covid has been a great tool in this divide and disruption. About half British before covid received some State aid, thus making them clients of the government rather than the reverse. With covid lockdowns destroying so many of the entrepreneurial ones, and so many young just beginning work, they will become clients of the state too, and thus pawns. Government will reduce to being vassals of the Elites, and manipulators of the citizens. The MSM is the great tool of this. Unherd is a breath of fresh air, I hope it does not cave to the woke as everything all around does.
However it did take centuries for Rome to finally collapse. (Tuesday, 29th May, 1453, just before lunch).
We on the other hand, seem to be heading for the cliff in overdrive!
At least they will be legal immigrants and, if they are anything like the Asians that arrived from Uganda in 70’s, they will be prepared to work for a living, help create wealth, and will have respect for the UK , it’s people and its culture as opposed to those that come here illegally with less honourable intentions.
Moving from the oppression of the Communist Chinese Party in Hong Kong to the burgeoning Marxist Leftist police state of the UK may not be much of an improvement.
Thank you for an enlightening interview. Democratic countries are now becoming increasingly aware of the mindset of the Chinese regime ie its’ one of control and dominance in all aspects of life, economic and cultural. I can see boundaries appearing between democratic countries and those of controlling despotic regimes … an Us and Them situation and we end up in a bipolar world. The important thing is for more groups like the Fives Eyes to pull together and resist the change that the Chinese will try to impose. Individual countries are vulnerable to their threats and sanctions, but by pulling together they can be resisted.
Demolishing the Red Wall and constructing a Great Wall, doubt those red/blue constituencies will be happy. Three million Hongkongers are eligible for UK
residency suppose If you can’t have an empire in foreign lands, then what better place to play emperor than in your own backyard. No need for a belt and road initiative for the UK when the barking mad British will build their own B&R Way Station. Anyone for Hadrian’s Wall?
That is a rather silly comment. Nobody here wants to “play emperor”. Unlike China, only Xi is not playing.
Playing emperor by contemplating the immigration into the UK of anywhere between three hundred thousand and three million Chinese (and they do self-identify as Chinese) is silly?
What happens when the Chinese free imperial city constituted on UK territory demands the autonomous power to finance or wage war from UK chartered soil?
We should have allowed them all in 1997, it would have ameliorated an otherwise shocking and humiliating event.
Ah, the end of the Major years and beginning of the Blair years. Blair sent his creature Mandleson to scour the world for migrants to ‘Rub the Right’s nose in it’, what a time that was, UK undergoing the great Paradigm Shift and being Socially Re-engineered. I am afraid the Hong Kong were too successful a people to bring in then. The government were after people who would make docile voters by becoming handout clients.
Yes, I couldn’t agree more.
Four million of them would have been a far greater asset, than say Scotland for example.
Priti is doing this to get the Hong Kong IQ. Google IQ by nation and Hong Kong always comes top. India always comes out high but the variation is great. (a very interesting thing is religion and caste when looking at India tables) The India/Africa diaspora people like Preti have been the top performing migrants since the Jews from WWII days. It is antiwoke to say this, and attracts canceling, but it is merely there for all to see via computer search. It does look bad for the future how speech is completely censored by PC now days, and thus ideas and information.
Priti is out to leaven the past with this, and although UK needs less rather than more people this is most likely to be a positive as the drive and Tiger Mother coupled with ability will really help declining scholarship in Britain. Then the entrepreneurial qualities, all just what the India/African diaspora brought to the west, contrasting some other diaspora effects, will be a great boon.