39 Facts About Emily Lau

Emily Lau Wai-hing, JP is a politician in Hong Kong who champions press freedom and human rights.

Emily Lau has served as Legislative Councillor for the New Territories East Constituency throughout the 1990s and 2000s until she stepped down in 2016.

Emily Lau was chairperson of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong until 2016.

In 1976, Emily Lau earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism from University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.

Emily Lau later cited the Watergate scandal and investigative journalism having had a major formative effect on her views on the role and potential of the free press.

Emily Lau then started doing television journalism when she joined the Television Broadcasts and was promoted to senior producer in 1981.

Emily Lau continued her studies in the early 1980s at the London School of Economics and completed an MSc in International Relations in 1982.

Emily Lau held a position as assistant producer at the BBC between 1982 and 1984, while concurrently working as the London correspondent of Hong Kong TVB News.

Emily Lau returned to Hong Kong as Hong Kong correspondent of the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review in 1984.

In 1987 Emily Lau took up a position at the Journalism and Communication Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and subsequently at the Extra-Mural Department of the University of Hong Kong.

Emily Lau was involved with the Hong Kong Journalists Association during this period, serving first as an executive committee member, then vice-chair and finally chairperson from 1989 to 1991.

Emily Lau campaigned for five months portraying herself as a new breed of politician in Hong Kong, appealing to a broad section of the Hong Kong population.

Emily Lau was equally a critic of Britain and Beijing.

In 1993, Emily Lau tabled a motion to seek assurances of right of abode in Britain for the British National passport holders in case they were expelled from Hong Kong after 1997.

Emily Lau became the Convenor of the new party, which managed to obtain five legislators and become the fourth largest political group in the legislature before the handover.

Emily Lau remained in the Legislative Council until it was disbanded by the PRC following the handover on 1 July 1997.

Emily Lau participated in street protests and in December 1996 she scuffled with the riot police outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre together with Andrew Cheng and Lee Cheuk-yan, while demonstrating outside the closed-door election for the post-handover Chief executive.

Emily Lau was therefore arrested with 29 other pro-democracy activists.

The pro-democracy camp ended up winning 63 per cent of the popular vote and Emily Lau was returned again to the Legislative Council where she remained until her retirement.

Emily Lau led The Frontier to put pressure on the government for an early democratisation of Hong Kong and was an outspoken critic of a number of LedCo motions, especially on the topic of human rights; she was sceptical of the reliability of the "One country, two systems" principle.

Emily Lau received the Bruno Kreisky Award for her human rights work in 1998.

In 1998, Emily Lau sued the Hong Kong branch of the Xinhua News Agency over its slow response to her queries for personal information.

On international issues, Emily Lau is supportive of self-determination for Taiwan.

Emily Lau stated that "Taiwan's future should be determined by the Taiwan people themselves".

Emily Lau fiercely opposed the controversial national security bill in 2002 and 2003, as it was clashing with requirements of the Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23.

Emily Lau was nominated chairwoman of the Legislative Council Finance Committee, position that she covered on and off until 2012.

At the time of her election to LegCo in 1991, Emily Lau was generally considered to be the most radical legislator in Hong Kong.

In September 2008 LegCo elections Emily Lau was barely re-elected in the New Territories East constituency, obtaining much fewer votes than in past elections.

Chairman Albert Ho resigned as chairman and Emily Lau became acting Chairperson of the party for three months.

On 11 December 2014, Emily Lau was arrested by the police with a group of about a hundred demonstrators staging a final sit-in, after a 75-day street occupation.

On 1 January 2016, Emily Lau announced that she would not seek to be elected for an eighth term in the September election, therefore ending her legislator activity after serving for 25 years in the Legislative Council party primary.

Emily Lau participated to the election in the list of her younger colleague Lam Cheuk-ting and helped him get elected with nearly 40,000 votes.

Emily Lau announced her resignation from the party chair post in December 2016 and was succeeded by legislator Wu Chi-wai.

Emily Lau relinquished all of her party positions in the coming months.

Emily Lau is considered a politician with strong convictions on the promotion of democratic human rights and equal opportunities in Hong Kong.

Emily Lau was among the most popular legislators throughout the 1990s.

In 1983, Emily Lau married John Ball, a British journalist from the Sunday Times.

In 1989, Emily Lau remarried to a Hong Kong lawyer, Winston Poon, QC.

Emily Lau said she was not aware of her brother's action but insisted that her family did not support Stephen Lau's claim.