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Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong’s ‘manifesto for global democracy’ to be launched in 2020 by British publisher

  • Student leader’s first book in English to feature reflections on his political activism, letters from prison, and a call to the world to stand up for democracy
  • He hopes book will explain Hong Kong issues to a wider audience, and says international pressure critical to getting ‘those in power to start listening to us’

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Joshua Wong is the centre of attention as he speaks to protesters against extradition law changes in Hong Kong a day after his release from prison. Photo: Sam Tsang
Kate Whitehead

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong’s first book in English will be published early next year by British publisher WH Allen.

The student leader who became the face of the 2014 “umbrella movement” that occupied key thoroughfares for 11 weeks to push for full democracy for the city says he hopes the book will give international audiences a deeper understanding of Hong Kong issues.

“Now is not only the summer of discontent, it is the year of discontent. It is time for international communities to know more about how Hong Kong people stand at the front to confront ‘Emperor’ Xi Jinping,” Wong, 22, told the Post. Xi is China’s president.

Unfree Speech: The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act Now, co-authored by lawyer Jason Ng, will be published in February 2020. WH Allen is an imprint of Ebury, a division of global publisher Penguin Random House. The publisher describes the book as “a powerful and urgent manifesto for global democracy”.

Joshua Wong leaves the High Court in a prison van in 2017 to begin a jail term for storming the Central Government Offices in 2014, an act which triggered the 79-day Occupy Central protest sit-in, also called the “umbrella movement”. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Joshua Wong leaves the High Court in a prison van in 2017 to begin a jail term for storming the Central Government Offices in 2014, an act which triggered the 79-day Occupy Central protest sit-in, also called the “umbrella movement”. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

The book collects Wong’s reflections from the front line of activism, as well as letters written from his prison cell, and is a call for people to stand up for their democratic and human rights wherever they live.

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