WHAT does it mean to be free?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the question Hong Kong\u2019s youngest lawmaker and activist Nathan Law asks in his new book Freedom: How We Lose It and How We Fight Back<\/em>, written in exile in London.<\/p>\n He will share his story via video at the Bendigo Bank Theatre at the Bendigo Writers Festival on Saturday, 14 May.<\/p>\n Law helped lead the Umbrella Movement democracy protests in 2014, which demanded more transparent elections in Hong Kong, as a student.<\/p>\n He was elected to the Hong Kong legislative council in 2016 before being disqualified by a court-ordered intervention from Beijing, as he posed a threat to Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s government. He was briefly jailed in 2017 for protesting.<\/p>\n When China issued the National Security Law<\/em> on 1 July 2020, Law exiled himself, knowing his activism could see him imprisoned.<\/p>\n \u201cThe civil society crumbled, our people\u2019s freedoms are deprived, and for me, I\u2019m a voice on a national level continuing to be a voice for Hong Kong people and raise awareness on what\u2019s happening there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n