Xi Jinping, Nathan Law Make Time Magazine List

President Xi Jinping and self-exiled Hong Kong activist Nathan Law are among Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of the year.

Also making the list are US President Donald Trump, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and top Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan, a key figure in the country's fight against Covid-19.

In a testimonial written by the last Hong Kong governor, Chris Patten, Law was described as someone who wouldn't claim pre-eminent status as a campaigner, but simply “a typically brave representative of a generation whose spirit the Chinese Communist Party wants to stamp out".

Law went into exile in the UK about three months ago before the controversial national security law came into effect in the SAR. Since then, he had spoken to numerous media outlets and travelled around Europe, calling on foreign officials and politicians to support the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

Law said on his Facebook page that it was beyond his imagination that he ended up on the list.

He said while he personally did not deserve the honour, it was a well-deserved recognition for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

Meanwhile, the 27-year-old won the magazine's "2020 TIME100 Reader Poll" by garnering 3.8 percent of the 4.7 million votes cast by readers.

President Xi was among 21 who landed on the list of 100 most influential people in the “leaders” category.

In a scathing piece written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Amanda Bennett, Xi was described as “China’s seemingly invulnerable top leader” whose “authoritarian moves rival the world’s most extreme: corralling ethnic Uighurs into camps, suppressing violent anti-China protests in Hong Kong, and ushering in powerful social-monitoring technology”.

Bennett also wrote about challenges facing China that could affect his grip on power, such as a shrinking and ageing workforce, a slowing economy exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and debt problems linked to the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.