On a crisp winter day two years ago, Kim Yo Jong took her first step to becoming the powerful politician her father thought she would be.

On a blue-sky day in May, as the coronavirus raged across the world, the Chinese flag was raised on a remote nation with a total population of 116,000, thousands of miles from Beijing.

If Beijing thought a new national security law would guarantee a quiet birthday for Hong Kong, it was mistaken.

Nathan Law, a former lawmaker and prominent pro-democracy activist, has fled Hong Kong, he announced Thursday on Facebook. The news comes days after China's central government imposed a controversial national security law in the territory.