In late June, days before a dreaded national security law was expected to take effect—which was Beijing’s answer to last year’s unrest—people on an internet forum pleaded for Joshua Wong to leave. The law outlined vaguely worded crimes of subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, punishable by lengthy sentences up to life imprisonment. It clearly targeted figures like him, who had testified before the US Congress and engaged in high-profile international advocacy. Nathan Law, a fellow activist, revealed in a few pained paragraphs that he had fled to an undisclosed location.

But Wong wanted to stay. ‘I will continue to hold fast to my home, Hong Kong, until they silence and obliterate me from this land,’ he wrote on Facebook, twelve hours before the law sank its teeth into the city.

• Tags: Elaine Yu, Hong Kong, Issue 20, Joshua Wong