Nathan Law

The Honourable Nathan Law Kwun-chung
羅冠聰
Member of the Legislative Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 October 2016
Preceded by	Jasper Tsang
Constituency	Hong Kong Island
Chairman of Demosistō
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 April 2016
Preceded by	Office Created
58th Secretary General of Hong Kong Federation of Students
In office 1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016
Preceded by	Alex Chow
Succeeded by	Chan Man-hei
Personal details
Born	Nathan Law Kwun-chung 13 July 1993 Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Citizenship	Hong Kong permanent resident
Nationality	Hong Kong Chinese
Political party	Demosistō
Residence	Tung Chung, New Territories
Education	Lingnan University
Alma mater	HKFEW Wong Cho Bau Secondary School
Occupation	Politician
Known for	2014 Hong Kong protests Umbrella Movement

Nathan Law Kwun-chung (Chinese: 羅冠聰; born 13 July 1993) is a politician in Hong Kong. As a former student leader, he had been chairman of the Representative Council of the Lingnan University Students' Union, acting president of the Lingnan University Students' Union (LUSU) and secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). He was one of the student leaders during the 79-days Umbrella Revolution in 2014. He is the current chairman of Demosisto, a new political party derived from the 2014 protests.

On 4 September 2016, at the age of 23, Law was elected to serve as a legislator from the Hong Kong Island geographic constituency, making him the youngest lawmaker in the history of the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Law is the member of self-determination pro-democracy camp, as well as Lau Siu-lai and Eddie Chu.

Early life

Law was born on 13 July 1993 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, to a Hong Kong father and a Mainland mother. He moved to Hong Kong with his mother for family reunion when he was around six years old.^[1] He received his secondary education at HKFEW Wong Cho Bau Secondary School, and is currently an undergraduate majoring in Cultural Studies at the Lingnan University (LU).

Student activism

Law was active in student activism and participated the 2013 Hong Kong dock strike. He joined and became the chairman of the Representative Council of the Lingnan University Students' Union and was the committee member of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). He later also became the acting president of the Lingnan University Students' Union (LUSU).

During the Umbrella Revolution, he rose as one of the student leaders and was one of the five student representatives to hold a talk in a televised open debate with the government representatives led by Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor with HKFS secretary general Alex Chow Yong-kang, vice secretary Lester Shum, general secretary Eason Chung, and another committee member Yvonne Leung in October 2014.^[2][3][4][5] He was also one of three student leaders at the heart of the Occupy protests whose Home Return Permits were revoked and were banned from flying to Beijing in an attempt to press their demands for genuine universal suffrage in November 2014.^[6][7] After the protests, he was arrested along with other student leaders.^[8]

After the protests, Law succeeded Alex Chow to become the secretary general of Hong Kong Federation of Students from 2015 to 2016. He won with 37 votes from the 53 student representatives from seven tertiary institutions qualified to vote in the annual election in March 2015. His only rival, Jason Szeto Tse-long, secured 14 votes.^[7] His secretaryship was highlighted by the disaffiliation crisis that saw localist students from member institutions trigger referendums to break away from the HKFS which was accused of making hasty decisions with little transparency during the Umbrella Revolution.^[7]

Law campaigned against the referendum at the LU as the acting president of the LUSU which the referendum to break away from HKFS was defeated. However, three student unions of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU), Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) and City University of Hong Kong (CityU) quit the federation in their referendums under Law's secretaryship, following the Hong Kong University Students' Union (HKUSU) exit in February 2015.

Legislative Councillor

In April 2016, Law and other leaders of the Umbrella Revolution including Joshua Wong Chi-fung formed a new political party Demosisto which aimed to fight for the self-determination right of Hong Kong people when the "One Country, Two Systems" expires in 2047, where he became the founding chairman of the new party. He has expressed his interest in running in Hong Kong Island in the 2016 Legislative Council election.^[9]

Law received 50,818 votes, the second-highest among all candidates for the six-seat Hong Kong Island constituency, and was elected.^[10] After his win, Law claimed that "people are voting (for) a new way and a new future for the democratic movement". Law was elected alongside allies Lau Siu-lai and Eddie Chu.^[11] At age 23, Law was the youngest-ever person to become a Hong Kong legislator.^[12]

References

1. "羅冠聰忙政事少歸家 母：同吃一頓飯就夠". Ming Pao. 7 May 2016.
2. Siu, Jasmine (20 October 2014). "Middle man vows fairness". The Standard.
3. 政府學聯各派五人出席下周政改對話 [Government and Students Federation in dialogue together] (in Chinese). 19 October 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
4. "Hong Kong protest talks agree little". CNN. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
5. Kevin Cheng, (22 October 2014). "Patience is virtue for Lam". The Standard
6. Ng, Joyce; Nip, Amy & Lau, Stuart (15 November 2014). "Beijing bans student leaders from taking trip to mainland to press for democracy". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
7. "Hong Kong Federation of Students elects Nathan Law as secretary general". South China Morning Post. 23 March 2015.
8. 星島新聞集團 (2015). 讀社論學英文第七卷. Sing Tao Publishing. p. 217.
9. "Joshua Wong's party named 'Demosisto'". Radio Television Hong Kong. 6 April 2016.
10. "(HK elections) Nathan Law elected as youngest lawmaker; Ricky Wong falls short". The Standard. 2016-09-05. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
11. The Associated Press (2016-09-05). "Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Candidates Retain Veto in Key Vote". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
12. Gupta, Priyanka (2016-09-06). "Q&A with Hong Kong's youngest legislator Nathan Law". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2016-09-06.