Agnes Chow


Agnes Chow Ting is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. She is the former member of the Standing Committee of Demosistō and former spokesperson of Scholarism. Initially a candidate supported by the pro-democracy camp for the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election, she was barred from running based on her party's stance on advocating self-determination for Hong Kong.

Personal life

Chow described growing up in an apolitical household. Her social activism began around the age of 15, after being inspired by a Facebook post with thousands of young people agitating for change. According to Chow, her Catholic upbringing had an influence on her participation in the social movements.
In 2014, Chow attended Hong Kong Baptist University, where she studied government and international relations. In 2018, Chow deferred her final year of university studies to run in the Hong Kong Island by-election. Chow also renounced her British nationality, which was a qualification requirement mandated by the Basic Law.
Chow is a multilingual speaker fluent in Cantonese, English, and Japanese. She learned Japanese by herself from watching television shows. Chow has made appearances in Japanese media, interviews, and news programs. Media outlets in Japan have referred to Chow as the "Goddess of Democracy" due to her association with Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.
In February 2020, Chow launched a YouTube channel, where she uploaded vlogging videos in Cantonese and Japanese. As of July 2020, Chow had over 185,000 subscribers.

Early activism

Chow first came to spotlight as the spokesperson of student activist group Scholarism in 2012. At the time, she was studying at the Holy Family Canossian College and protested against the implementation of the Moral and National Education scheme, which critics deemed as "brainwashing". During a demonstration, she met fellow activists Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam. The movement successfully drew thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Central Government Complex, which led to the backdown of the government in September 2012.
In 2014, Chow collaborated with student organizations to seek change in the Hong Kong electoral reform. Chow was one of the leaders in the class boycott campaign against the restrictive electoral framework set by the National People's Congress Standing Committee on the 2017 Chief Executive election, which led to the massive Occupy protests dubbed the "Umbrella Revolution". During the occupation, Chow announced her stepping out of the politics by resigning as spokesperson of Scholarism, citing the heavy political pressure she was facing.
on 23 September 2014. They wear red blindfolds to symbolise students figuratively blinded by China's political power.

Demosistō

In April 2016, Chow was one of the founding members of Demosistō with other former student leaders in the Occupy protests. She was the first deputy secretary-general of the party from 2016 to 2017. She campaigned with party chairman Nathan Law in the 2016 Legislative Council election, in which the latter was elected as the youngest member of the Legislative Council in history. In 2017, she participated in the protest during the visit of Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, in which they covered the Golden Bauhinia statue with banners. She was arrested along with Demosistō chairman Nathan Law and secretary-general Joshua Wong.
for the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election.
On 30 June 2020, Chow, along with Law and Wong, announced that they had disbanded Demosistō, which they co-founded. The announcement came just hours before Beijing passed the National Security Law in Hong Kong, which raised concerns of political imprisonment against activists.

Legislative Council bid

After Law was ejected from the Legislative Council over the oath-taking controversy in July 2017 and sentenced to imprisonment in August of the same year, Chow became Demosistō's candidate in the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election. To qualify for the election, she gave up her British citizenship. On 27 January 2018, her candidacy was disqualified by the Electoral Affairs Commission on the basis of that she "cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the ."
Michael Davis, a former law professor of the University of Hong Kong, warned that Chow's disqualification was wrong and the government was on a "slippery slope". Former university law dean Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun said there was no legal basis for such a move. Basic Law Committee member Albert Chen Hung-yee said election rules were not clear if returning officers had the power to disqualify candidates based on their political views. Chief Executive Carrie Lam commented that "any suggestion of Hong Kong independence, self-determination, independence as a choice or self-autonomy is not in line with Basic Law requirements and deviates from the important principle of 'one country two systems.'" Were Chow elected, she would have been the youngest lawmaker in Hong Kong history.
After Chow's disqualification, Demosistō endorsed pro-democracy candidate Au Nok-hin, who won the by-election. On 2 September 2019, Chow succeeded in her appeal after the judge ruled that "she had insufficient opportunity to respond to the grounds for disqualification". Since her ban was overturned by the Hong Kong Court, Au lost his Legislative Council seat when the court claimed he was not duly elected. After the ruling, Chow described the results as a "Pyrrhic victory".

Arrest

Chow was arrested on 30 August 2019 at her Tai Po home. On the same day, many high-profile Hong Kong pro-democracy figures were arrested, including Joshua Wong, Au Nok-hin, Andy Chan, and Jeremy Tam. She was freed the same day on bail, but her smartphone, as well as the phones of other fellow arrestees, were confiscated by police. Amnesty International had called the arrests "an outrageous assault" on free expression.

Filmography