59 Facts About Leung Kwok-hung

Leung Kwok-hung, known by his nickname "Long Hair", is a Hong Kong politician and social activist.

Leung Kwok-hung was a member of the Legislative Council, representing the New Territories East.

Leung Kwok-hung became a political icon with his long hair and Che Guevara T-shirt in the protests before he was elected to the Legislative Council in 2004.

On 14 July 2017, Leung was disqualified by the court over his manner on oath of office at the inaugural meeting of the Legislative Council on 12 October 2016 as a result of the oath-taking controversy.

Leung Kwok-hung was born on 27 March 1956 in Hong Kong to a family from Guangdong Province.

Leung Kwok-hung was raised in a single family after his father left home when Leung was six-years-old, while his mother was an amah in a British family to support the family and Leung had to live with relatives back in Shau Kei Wan who had seven children.

Leung Kwok-hung was arrested multiple times, including in the protests of supporting the 1976 April Fifth Tiananmen Incident and Chinese democracy movement.

In 1986, Leung Kwok-hung worked for Kowloon Motor Bus as an overnight vehicle cleaner.

Leung Kwok-hung supported the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and was a member of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China.

Leung Kwok-hung has been briefly jailed several times for offences such as shouting from Legislative Council of Hong Kong public viewing gallery, burning the national flag of the People's Republic of China and forcibly breaking into an opposition political event.

Leung Kwok-hung first contested in the Legislative Council election in 2000, where he ran in the New Territories East.

Leung Kwok-hung received 18,235 votes, about six percent of the total vote share and was not elected.

Leung Kwok-hung called out the DAB as the "loyalist party" and received 1,149, only 284 short to defeat Choy.

Leung Kwok-hung's campaigns include universal suffrage, workers' rights and welfare for the less well off.

Leung Kwok-hung had planned to alter his oath of office, but a Hong Kong judge said such a step would make it impossible for him to serve.

Observers watched closely the reaction from the PRC government, as Leung Kwok-hung's statements touched upon a politically sensitive issue that is considered taboo in official public settings.

In 2005, Leung Kwok-hung took part in the protests against the WTO Conference in Hong Kong and was injured during the demonstration.

In 2006, Leung Kwok-hung co-founded the social democratic party League of Social Democrats with legislator Albert Chan and radical pro-democrat radio host Wong Yuk-man.

Leung Kwok-hung has not had a Home Return Permit since 1989, after the Tiananmen Massacre, having been denied one by the Chinese authorities, but he was able to visit mainland China once in the company of his mother in about 2003.

Leung Kwok-hung was able to visit mainland China in 2005, on an invitation to Hong Kong legislators, including pan-democrats, to visit Guangdong.

On 4 July 2008 Leung Kwok-hung was scheduled to visit areas in Sichuan damaged by the Sichuan earthquake as part of a 20-member delegation.

Sichuan officials claimed to have seen Internet reports saying Leung Kwok-hung planned to do something not relevant to the purpose of the trip.

Leung Kwok-hung accused the Democratic Party for not participating in the campaign and instead reached a controversial agreement with the Beijing government over the reform proposal.

Leung Kwok-hung, being the only legislator left in the party refused to follow Wong and Chan.

Leung Kwok-hung subsequently took over as party chairman after To resigned when he lost his seat in the District Council elections.

Leung Kwok-hung himself ran in the election against DAB legislator Ip Kwok-him in his stronghold Kwun Lung but lost with a wide margin of 1,800 votes.

Leung Kwok-hung participated in the filibustering against the bill with Albert Chan and Wong Yuk-man, submitting 1,306 amendments altogether, which began the radical democrats' filibustering practice against the government bills in the following years.

In May 2015, Leung Kwok-hung was barred from entering Malaysia along with Joshua Wong on grounds that their presence in the country would damage Malaysia's ties with China.

Leung Kwok-hung condemned the Malaysian government and accused it of violating his basic rights.

In 2016 Legislative Council election Leung Kwok-hung was re-elected with 35,595 votes.

Leung Kwok-hung came in ninth in the nine-seat constituency, with only 1,051 votes separating him from the unelected Christine Fong due to the infighting among the pan-democracy camp and surges of many localist candidates with more radical agenda.

Leung Kwok-hung paused many times while reading the oath and tore a piece of paper with the words "NPC 831 decision".

Leung Kwok-hung launched his Chief Executive bid in February 2017 through a "public nomination" mechanism conducted by post-Occupy group Citizens United in Action, in which he would seek to secure 37,790 votes from members of the public, one per cent of the city's registered voters before he would canvass for the nominations from the Election Committee.

Leung Kwok-hung explained his decision was to urge the pro-democrat electors not to vote for any pro-establishment candidates who could not represent the pro-democracy camp at all even if they see them as "lesser evils", as some pro-democrats had inclined to support John Tsang, the relatively liberal pro-establishment candidate to prevent a hardliner Carrie Lam from winning.

Leung Kwok-hung aimed to reflect the spirit of the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the voice of those low-income people.

Leung Kwok-hung's bid was supported by four radical democrat legislators People Power's Raymond Chan, Demosisto's Nathan Law, Lau Siu-lai and Eddie Chu, while the mainstream pro-democrats cast doubt over Leung's candidacy, believing it would contribute to the victory to Carrie Lam.

Leung Kwok-hung stated that he being able to collect more than 20,000 nominations with personal contact information and identity card numbers had proved that "civil nomination" is achievable.

Until the end of 2024, Leung Kwok-hung accumulated 25 convictions, some of which were for unauthorized assembly.

On 18 April 2020, Leung Kwok-hung was arrested as one of 15 Hong Kong high-profile democracy figures, on suspicion of organizing, publicizing or taking part in several unauthorized assemblies between August and October 2019 in the course of the anti-extradition bill protests.

Leung Kwok-hung was sentenced in October 2020 to a prison term of three months and six days.

On 8 December 2020, Leung Kwok-hung was arrested again for "unauthorised assembly" during the July 1 protest of that year and was released on bail pending a court appearance.

On 6 January 2021, Leung Kwok-hung was arrested along with more than 50 other pan-democrats, accused of violating the national security law over their participation in the pro-democracy primaries of 2020.

On 28 February 2021, Leung Kwok-hung was formally charged, along with 46 others, with subversion and was arrested again.

On 13 May 2021, High Court judge Esther Toh, upheld her decision to deny bail to Leung Kwok-hung alleging his determinate opposition to the government and the national security law.

Toh argued that Leung Kwok-hung had foreign and international support if released and that he was at high risk of reoffending.

On 5 September 2022, Leung Kwok-hung pleaded not-guilty to subversion charges.

On 30 May 2024, Leung Kwok-hung was found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion.

On 19 November 2024, Leung Kwok-hung was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.

On 16 April 2021, Leung Kwok-hung was found guilty of taking part in unauthorised assembly and was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment.

On 24 May 2021, Leung Kwok-hung pleaded guilty over another unauthorised assembly in 2019 which turned violent.

Leung Kwok-hung was defiant during the mitigation hearing in court and said that however he pleaded guilty, he believed he had done nothing wrong.

On 28 May 2021, Leung Kwok-hung was sentenced to an additional 18 months' imprisonment over the 2019 unauthorised assembly.

On 16 October 2021, Leung Kwok-hung was sentenced to further eight months' imprisonment over un unauthorised assembly in July 2020, in a protest against the national security law.

Leung Kwok-hung is widely referred to by the sobriquet "Long Hair", and press photographs show him with long locks as early as 1977.

Leung Kwok-hung is reputed to have vowed not to cut his hair until the government of the People's Republic of China apologised for the Tiananmen Square massacre although he has denied this on several occasions.

Leung Kwok-hung is a smoker and can often be seen sporting a T-shirt with the iconic likeness of his favoured Che Guevara and smoking a cigarette.

Leung Kwok-hung is a fan of the Homeless World Cup and has accompanied Hong Kong's team to the tournament for several years.

Leung Kwok-hung says he learned English by listening to the British Forces Broadcasting Service radio station.

Leung Kwok-hung is married to fellow activist and deputy secretary-general of the League of Social Democrats Chan Po-ying.