Agnes Chow

Agnes Chow
周庭
Personal details
Born	(1996-12-03) 3 December 1996 Hong Kong
Citizenship	British (until 2018)
Nationality	Hong Kong Chinese
Political party	Demosistō
Education	Hong Kong Baptist University
Occupation	Student
Known for	Spokesperson of Scholarism; 2014 Hong Kong protests

Agnes Chow Ting (Chinese: 周庭; born 3 December 1996) is a Hong Kong social activist. She is the member of the Standing Committee of Demosistō and former spokesperson of Scholarism. Initially a candidate supported by the Pro-democracy camp for the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election, she was barred from running based on her party's stance on advocating democratic self-determination.

Early activism

She first came to spotlight in the anti-Moral and National Education movement as the spokesman of student activist group Scholarism in 2012. She was a Form 6 student at the Holy Family Canossian College and protested against the implementation of the Moral and National Education scheme which they deemed as "brainwashing". The movement successfully drew thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Central Government Complex which led to the backdown of the government in September 2012.^[1]

Agnes Chow and Joshua Wong on 23 September 2014. They wear red blindfolds to symbolise students figuratively blinded by China's political power.

After the Moral and National Education, Chow and other activists of Scholarism including Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam continued their involvement in social and political movements, notably the 2014 Hong Kong electoral reform. Chow was one of the leaders in the class boycott campaign against the restrictive electoral framework set by the National People's Congress Standing Committee on the 2017 Chief Executive election, which led to the massive Occupy protests dubbed the "Umbrella Revolution". During the occupation, Chow announced her stepping out of the politics by resigning as spokesperson of Scholarism, citing the "heavy pressure" and "extreme confusion and fatigue" she was facing.^[2]

Demosistō

In April 2016, she was among one of the founding members of Demosistō with other former student leaders in the Occupy protests and was the first deputy secretary-general of the party from 2016 to 2017. She campaigned with party chairman Nathan Law in the 2016 Legislative Council election, in which the latter was elected as the youngest member of the Legislative Council in history. In 2017, she participated in the protest during the Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, in which they covered the Golden Bauhinia statue with banners. She was arrested along with Demosistō chairman Nathan Law and secretary-general Joshua Wong.^[3]

Agnes Chow campaigned with Nathan Law for the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election.

After Nathan Law was ejected from the Legislative Council over the oath-taking controversy in July 2017 and sentenced to imprisonment in August at same year, which barred Law from being candidate of public offices for 5 years, Chow became Demosistō's candidate in the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election.^[4] In order to be qualified for running, she gave up her British citizenship. On 27 January 2018, her candidacy was disqualified by the Electoral Affairs Commission on the basis of that she "cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region]."^[5][6] Several legal experts expressed misgivings about the decision, leading Chief Executive Carrie Lam to comment that "any suggestion of Hong Kong independence, self-determination, independence as a choice or self-autonomy is not in line with Basic Law requirements and deviates from the important principle of 'one country two systems.'"^[7] Were Chow elected, she would have been the youngest lawmaker in Hong Kong history.^[8]

References