Shibani Mahtani is an international investigative correspondent for The Washington Post. Tim McLaughlin is a contributing writer to The Atlantic. They are the authors of Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy, a new book that follows the lives of four pro-democracy Hong Kongers, tracing how their upbringing shapes their identities and political beliefs, their role in the 2019 protests, and their fates in its aftermath. In this lightly edited Q&A, we discuss their new book, the evolution of U.S. foreign policy on Hong Kong, and how reporting on the city has changed since the enactment of the 2020 National Security Law.
Shibani Mahtani.Illustration by Kate Copeland
Q: How did you choose who to write about in Among the Braves?
Shibani Mahtani: We pitched the book in the first week of January 2021 and within that week there was the mass arrest of pro-democracy advocates under the National Security Law (NSL). S
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