Fergus Leung Fong-wai (; born 3 April 1997) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

politician formerly serving as a member of the

Central and Western District Council The Central and Western District Council is the district council for the Central and Western District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Central and Western District Council currently consists of 20 members, of which the distric ...

, representing Kwun Lung. Leung ran as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Localist camp Localist camp or localist and self-determination groups refers to the various groups with localist ideologies in Hong Kong. It emerged from post-80s social movements in the late 2000s which centred on the preservation of the city's autono ...

candidate in the 2019 District Council elections and won his seat with 50.69% of the vote.

Career

Leung developed an interest in politics at high school, and took part in Hong Kong's 2014

Umbrella Movement The Umbrella Movement () was a political movement that emerged during the 2014 Hong Kong protests. Its name arose from the use of umbrellas as a tool for nonviolent resistance, passive resistance to the Hong Kong Police Force's use of pepper ...

as a teenager. He studied

biomedicine Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

at the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

, where he served as the external affairs secretary of the

student union A students' union or student union, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizatio ...

. In July 2019, Leung was spurred by the ongoing Hong Kong protests to run for a position on his local District Council. As a first-time candidate competing against the

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be ...

Yeung Hoi-wing, Leung won the seat in Kwun Lung, which had been considered a pro-establishment stronghold, represented by the same political party since 2007. His election win was amid record

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

throughout the city, which Leung described as "a milestone in Hong Kong's

pro-democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. Whether and to what ...

movement". In June 2020, Leung announced his intention to run in the

2020 Hong Kong legislative election The 2020 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was originally scheduled on 6 September 2020 until it was postponed by the government. On 31 July 2020, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that she was invoking the ...

. He connected with fellow

localist camp Localist camp or localist and self-determination groups refers to the various groups with localist ideologies in Hong Kong. It emerged from post-80s social movements in the late 2000s which centred on the preservation of the city's autono ...

candidates Sam Cheung and Owen Chow, where they signed a joint statement agreeing to promote the protest movement's demands if elected. In the pro-democracy primaries for the

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island () is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. The island, known originally and on road signs simply as "Hong Kong", had a population of 1,289,500 and a population density of , . It is the second largest island in Hong Kon ...

constituency, Leung took third place with 14,743 votes, after

Ted Hui Ted Hui Chi-fung ( zh, t=許智峯; born 8 June 1982) is a Hong Kong politician. He formerly represented the Chung Wan constituency in the Central and Western District Council, and was a Legislative Councillor for the Hong Kong Island const ...

and

Tiffany Yuen Tiffany Yuen Ka-wai ( zh, link=no, t=袁嘉蔚; born 30 September 1993) is a Hong Kong activist and politician, who has been a member of the Southern District Council for Tin Wan since 2020. She was the vice chairperson of Demosistō before res ...

, securing him a nomination spot in the general election. On 30 July, weeks before the general election, the government stated that Leung was among a dozen pro-democracy candidates whose nominations were 'invalid'. His disqualification was determined by an opaque process where returning officers nominally assessed whether Leung had objected to the enactment of the national security law, and was sincere in statements made disavowing

separatism Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...

. On 6 January 2021, Leung was among 55 members of the pro-democratic camp who were arrested under the national security law, specifically its provision regarding subversion. The group stood accused of organising and participating in unofficial primary elections held by the camp in July 2020. Leung was released on bail on 7 January. On 30 April 2021, he resigned as a district councillor after he was charged under the national security law.

References

Living people Independent politicians in Hong Kong District councillors of Central and Western District Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Hong Kong democracy activists 1997 births Political prisoners held by Hong Kong {{HongKong-politician-stub