Lau Chin-shek (born 12 September 1944 in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

with family root in

Shunde Shunde District, also known as Shuntak, is a district of the city of Foshan, Guangdong province, located in the Pearl River Delta. It had a population of 2,464,784 as of the 2010 census. Once a traditional agricultural county, it has become one ...

) is the President of the

Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) was a pro-democracy labour and political group in the Hong Kong. It was established on 29 July 1990. It had 160,000 members in 61 affiliates (mainly trade unions in various sectors) and rep ...

and a vice Chairman of the

Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee The Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee ( Chinese: 香港基督教工業委員會, also called as HKCIC) is a non-governmental pressure group that focuses on labor welfare policy and industrial safety. The group was founded in 1966, original ...

. He was born in Guangzhou and had a secondary school education. He was a member of the Legislative Council from 1991 to 2008.

Background

Lau smuggled from Guangzhou to Hong Kong in 1960. Since the 1980s, he has been a

labour activist A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers. In some unions, the orga ...

, working to help factory workers in

Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui P ...

and

Cheung Sha Wan Cheung Sha Wan is an area between Lai Chi Kok and Sham Shui Po in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is mainly residential to the north and south, with an industrial area in between. Administratively it is part of Sham Shui Po District, which also ...

, where working conditions were poor. During the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

, Lau and other pro-democracy activists expressed sympathy and support to the student demonstrators who had gathered at Tiananmen Square. He and others also founded the

Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China ( zh, link=no, t=香港市民支援愛國民主運動聯合會; abbr. ; ) was a pro-democracy organisation that was established on 21 May 1989 in the then British col ...

, which organises the anniversary commemoration of the 1989 protests. In 1990, Lau and other labour activists, including

Lee Cheuk-yan Lee Cheuk-yan (; born 12 February 1957 in Shanghai) is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1995 to 2016, when he lost his seat. He represented the Kowloon West and the Manufac ...

, established the 160,000-strong

. Lau ran in the Hong Kong legislative elections in 1991, and was elected. Lau was re-elected four times. Lau was a lawmaker continuously from 1991 to 2008, except he resigned in 1994 but elected again in 1995, a brief period during 1997 and 1998 when the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred to the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and the Legislative Council temporarily became a

Provisional Legislative Council The Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) was the interim legislature of Hong Kong that operated from 1997 to 1998. The legislature was founded in Guangzhou and sat in Shenzhen from 1996 (with offices in Hong Kong) until the handover in 1997 an ...

which was filled with people indirectly hand picked by Beijing. In recent years, however, Lau has moderated his stance against Beijing. He was expelled from the

Democratic Party (Hong Kong) The Democratic Party (DP) is a centre-left liberal political party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Lo Kin-hei, it is the flagship party in the pro-democracy camp and currently has 7 elected representatives in the District Councils. The party was es ...

in 2000 because of having an identity of two parties. Once branded subversive by the central authorities, Mr Lau had been barred from entering

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

for more than a decade. In May 2000, after quiet lobbying by Hong Kong top leaders, he was allowed to make a low-key visit to

to see his ailing mother. Since then, he has been urging his pro-democracy colleagues to have "better communication with the Central Government" and visit mainland China and see for themselves the changes that are taking place in the country. Lau lost his seat in the Legislative Council in the Legislative Election of 2008 with only 5.1% or 10,553 votes. On a radio program in September 2008, he announces that he has been diagnosed with

colorectal cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel m ...

. He says the cancer is under control.

External links

Lau Chin-shek's websiteHong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions' election campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lau, Chin-Shek Hong Kong justices of the peace 1944 births Living people Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions Politicians from Guangzhou Hong Kong trade unionists Democratic Party (Hong Kong) politicians The Frontier (Hong Kong) politicians United Democrats of Hong Kong politicians HK LegCo Members 1991–1995 HK LegCo Members 1995–1997 HK LegCo Members 1998–2000 HK LegCo Members 2000–2004 HK LegCo Members 2004–2008