Sin Chung-kai (; born 15 June 1960) is a former member of the

Hong Kong Legislative Council The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under People's Republic of China, China's "one country, two systems" constitutional arrange ...

. He was the chairman and a member of

Kwai Tsing District Council The Kwai Tsing District Council () is the district council for the Kwai Tsing District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. It currently consists of 32 members of which 31 are directly elected from the 31 constituencies of the district, ...

for the Wah Lai constituency. He was one of the two vice-chairmen of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

until December 2012, and now serves as a member of the Executive Committee.

Early career

In 1982, Sin obtained his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

at the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

, where he served as the Current Affairs Secretary of the Student Union. In 1997, he obtained a

Master in Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

at 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 an ...

. Sin was formerly employed as an

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

manager at

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

, resigning in 2011 to focus on his political career.

Political career

District Council

Sin's political career began in 1985 when he was first elected to the Kwai Tsing District Board. He was re-elected in subsequent elections, remaining in this role until 2003. Between the years 1994–1999, Sin served as the chairperson of the board. In 2011, Sin was one of the contenders in the district council election, representing the

Tai Hang Tai Hang () is an area southeast of Causeway Bay located in the mid-north of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It is home to many luxurious private apartments. Residents are predominantly more affluent Hong Kong locals and expatriate profession ...

constituency. He got 40.9% of the votes, losing to Wong Chor-fung of the New People's Party (NPP). In 2014, Sin participated in the by-election for the South Horizons West constituency, where he got 22.9% of the votes and lost to Judy Chan from the NPP. In 2019, Sin contested in the district council election for the Wah Lai constituency. He won the seat with 51.93% of the votes, defeating

pro-Beijing The pro-Beijing camp, pro-establishment camp, pro-government camp or pro-China camp refers to a political alignment in Hong Kong which generally supports the policies of the Beijing central government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) t ...

incumbent Wong Yiu-chung. He also became chairperson of the Kwai Tsing District Board again, starting in January 2020.

Legislative Council

In 1995, Sin ran the Hong Kong legislative election for the New Territories South constituency, winning dominantly with 70.74% of the votes over two other candidates. In 1998, Sin participated in the

legislative election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, representing the

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 ...

. He was elected to the Legislative Council with 63.71% of the votes. Sin was re-elected in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

within the same constituency. Sin contested in the

2012 Hong Kong legislative election The 2012 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 9 September 2012 for the 5th Legislative Council (LegCo) since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The election was for the new total of 70 seats in LegCo ...

, where he represented the

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km ...

constituency. He came in second place after

Kenneth Chan Ka-lok Kenneth Chan Ka-lok (), born 12 June 1968) was, from 2012 until 2016, an elected member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, representing the Hong Kong Island geographical constituency. He was the chairman of the Hong Kong Civic Party. He is ...

with 12.26% of the votes, which secured him a seat on the Legislative Council.

Political activities

Sin served as an executive committee member in the

United Democrats of Hong Kong The United Democrats of Hong Kong (; UDHK) was a short-lived political party in Hong Kong founded in 1990 as the united front of the liberal democracy forces in preparation of the 1991 first ever direct election for the Legislative Council of ...

(UDHK) between the years 1990–1994. Since 1994, he has been affiliated with the

. He was also the former vice chairperson of the party. In December 2012, Sin contested in the leadership election of the party, following the resignation of

Albert Ho Albert Ho Chun-yan (; born 1 December 1951) is a solicitor and politician in Hong Kong. He is the former chairman (2014–2019) and vice-chair (2019–2021) of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, and f ...

in the aftermath of 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 ...

. Sin lost narrowly to

Emily Lau Emily may refer to: * Emily (given name), including a list of people with the name Music * "Emily" (1964 song), title song by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer to the film ''The Americanization of Emily'' * "Emily" (Dave Koz song), a 1990 song ...

, who had 149 votes to his 133 votes.Emily Lau Wai-hing elected Democratic Party chairwoman
''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

'', 16 December 2012 In 2007, Sin was awarded the

Silver Bauhinia Star The Silver Bauhinia Star (, SBS) is the second Bauhinia Star rank in the honours system of Hong Kong, awarded to people who have taken a leading part in public affairs or voluntary work over a long period. The award was created in 1997 to repla ...

for his contributions to public affairs. During his political career, Sin had advocated for

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

, economic prosperity, and free flow of information in Hong Kong. He introduced numerous initiatives to develop the city's IT and telecommunications industries. On 18 April 2020, Sin was among the 15 prominent

pro-democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...

figures arrested in Hong Kong. His arrest was made based on the claim that he took part in an unauthorized assembly on 1 October 2019 during the anti-extradition bill protests. On 10 June 2022, Sin, along the two other pro-democracy figures, had his

honour removed, and his Justice of the Peace appointment was revoked by the government due to his jail sentences related to anti extradition-bill protests.

Personal life

Sin has been married to his wife since 1986. They have two sons.

References

External links

Cyber Office of Sin Chung-kai, Legislative Councillor (ITFC)
1960 births Living people Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Alumni of the Chinese University of Hong Kong District councillors of Kwai Tsing District Democratic Party (Hong Kong) politicians HSBC people United Democrats of Hong Kong politicians Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood politicians HK LegCo Members 1995–1997 HK LegCo Members 1998–2000 HK LegCo Members 2000–2004 HK LegCo Members 2004–2008 HK LegCo Members 2012–2016 Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2012–2017 Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2017–2021 Recipients of the Silver Bauhinia Star {{HK-politician-stub