Freedom: How We Lose It and How We Fight Back Paperback – December 7, 2021 by Nathan Law

Description

Author: Law Nathan

Package Dimensions: 20x213x249

Number Of Pages: 240

Release Date: 07-12-2021

Details: Product Description
A timely manifesto on freedom from Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy activist Nathan Law, a Nobel Prize nominee

In this dispatch from exile, Hong Kong political activist Nathan Law explores the meaning of freedom—and shows how easily freedoms can be eroded or dismantled. Freedom is fragile—it is not a given, and each generation must fight to protect it, whether in emerging democracies or in the Western world, where freedom is too often taken for granted.

Law sets out to prove the value of what we take to be inherently bestowed upon us as human beings, and to expose the Chinese government as it barricades its citizens from enjoying freedom. He lays out how the government controls what people know and are allowed to think, suppresses the truth, and undermines democratic processes by censoring its own members. If freedom is a basic human right, then why were lawyers, journalists, and activists being jailed, and why has Nathan Law been labeled a wanted fugitive?

Rooted in his own experience as a former elected official and student leader of the Umbrella Movement, Law explores not just how important freedom is in principle for human beings to thrive, but how it is put into practice. What does it mean to be able to speak freely, and what happens when the concept collapses? How can the law both protect and abolish our freedoms? And why should we place such importance on free and fair elections? What does it mean to be truly free? Nathan Law has worked tirelessly to apply pressure in order to reshape freedom in Hong Kong, because it is with freedom that we’ll live as we’re meant to be.
Review
“We must all continue to speak up and stand up for Nathan Law and for those who fight for freedom in Hong Kong.”
—TIME magazine, “The 100 Most Influential People of 2020”

“A heartfelt primer . . . the moderate and thoughtful Law is nothing like the radical agitator of Beijing’s imagination.”
—Financial Times

“An essential and timely read, warning policymakers, advocates and all people of the erosion to freedom happening before our eyes and equipping us to combat this challenge.”
—Speaker Nancy Pelosi

“Nathan Law’s agonizing account of China’s ruthless takeover of Hong Kong provides a terrible insight into Beijing’s ambitions—the world needs to read this before other Pacific entities are swallowed up.”
—Jon Snow, journalist
About the Author

In 2016,
Nathan Law became Hong Kong’s youngest elected lawmaker at just 23. A year later, he was imprisoned by the Chinese authorities for his part in the Umbrella Movement. He has since been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his pro-democracy advocacy and named one of
TIME magazine’s People of the Year 2020. He has a master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Yale University and is a Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago. He lives in London.

Evan Fowler is a writer and researcher focusing on Hong Kong and China affairs.