Edward Lau Kwok-fan, MH, JP (; born 28 June 1981) is a Hong Kong politician. He is the member of the executive committee of the

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) is a pro-Beijing conservative political party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Starry Lee and holding 13 Legislative Council seats, it is currently the largest party in the ...

(DAB) and former member of the

North District Council The North District Council () is one of the 18 Hong Kong district councils and represents the North District. It is one of 18 such councils. Consisting of 22 members, the district council is drawn from 18 constituencies, which elect 18 members, ...

, representing Yan Shing until 2019. In the

2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * '' Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film d ...

, he succeeded DAB veteran legislator

Ip Kwok-him Ip Kwok-him, GBM, GBS, JP (; born 8 November 1951) is a former unofficial member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, served between 2016 and 2022. He is also former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for the District Council ...

in the

District Council (First) The District Council (First) functional constituency (), formerly called District Council until 2012, was a functional constituency in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Its electorate consists of all 431 directly elected mem ...

functional constituency A functional constituency is an electoral device (a non-geographical constituency) used within the political systems of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China: * Functional constituency (Hong Kong) * Functional cons ...

to the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Ko ...

Biography

Lau was born in 1981 and graduated from the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university and ...

with a master's degree in sociology. He joined the

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) is a pro-Beijing conservative political party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Starry Lee and holding 13 Legislative Council seats, it is currently the largest party in the ...

(DAB), the largest pro-Beijing party in 2002. He became a member of the party's executive committee in 2009. He first contested in the 2003 District Council election in Yan Shing for the

. In the 2007 District Council election, he ran again in the Yan Shing and won and defeated Adrian Lau Tak-cheong by receiving 4,159 votes, the second highest votes in Hong Kong. He was re-elected for two more terms in 2011 and 2015. He lost his seat in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

following a rout of pro-Beijing candidates amidst the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. He was elected in the 2011 Election Committee subsector election through the New Territories District Council subsector to the

Election Committee The Election Committee is a Hong Kong electoral college, the function of which is to select the Chief Executive (CE) and, since 2021, to elect 40 of the 90 members of the Legislative Council. Established by Annex I of the Basic Law of Ho ...

, which was responsible for electing Chief Executive election in 2012. In the

2012 Legislative Council election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

, Lau stood in the second place of the Chan Hak-kan's DAB ticket. Chan's list eventually received more than 40,000 votes with Chan being returned to the Legislative Council. He was appointed to the

Urban Renewal Authority The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) is a quasi-governmental, profit-making statutory body in Hong Kong responsible for accelerating urban redevelopment. History The authority's predecessor, the Land Development Corporation (土地發展� ...

Appeal Board Panel and the Council for Sustainable Development in 2013 and 2015 respectively. In the

, he defeated three other party members in a four-way intra-party primary to take up

in the

. He was elected to the Legislative Council unopposed. In January 2021, the DAB proposed that committees monitor whether district councillors are fulfilling the oath of loyalty to the government, as ordered by the

Civil Service Bureau The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) is one of the 15 policy bureaux under the Government Secretariat of the Government of Hong Kong and is responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies on the management of the Hong Kong Civil Servi ...

. Lau claimed that since district councils are majority pro-democracy, they have been slow to hand out money, and district councillors should be stripped of their power to allocate public funds. In addition, Lau claimed that "The district councils, over the past year, have lost their function as a consultative body and become a platform for the opposition camp to smear the central and the local governments." In December 2022, Lau was part of 3 lawmakers who drafted legislation to reform

CUHK The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university an ...

's governing council, saying "During the anti-government turmoil in 2019, there was a riot on the campus of CUHK but the attitude and handling of the incident by CUHK were appalling."

Personal life

In August 2022, Lau tested positive for COVID-19.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lau, Kwok-fan 1981 births Alumni of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Living people District councillors of North District Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong politicians Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2012–2017 HK LegCo Members 2016–2021 HK LegCo Members 2022–2025 Hong Kong pro-Beijing politicians