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, colloquially known as LegCo, is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the pow ...

. He was the chairman and a member of

Kwai Tsing District Council The Kwai Tsing District Council () is the district council of Hong Kong, 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 6 are directly elected from the three ...

for the Wah Lai constituency. He was one of the two vice-chairmen of the Democratic Party 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 Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

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

Master in Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

at the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public university, public research university in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. Established in 1963 as a federation of three university college, collegesChung Chi College, New Asia Coll ...

. Sin was formerly employed as an

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

manager at

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

, 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 professiona ...

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 or pro-China camp is a political alignment in Hong Kong which generally supports the policies of the Beijing central government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) towards Hong Kong. The term " ...

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 an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General 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 in Hong Kong * Indirectly el ...

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

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

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 60 ...

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 of Hong Kong, Legislative Council (LegCo) since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The election was for ...

, where he represented 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. He came in second place after

Kenneth Chan Ka-lok Kenneth Chan Ka-lok ( zh, t=陳家洛) (born 12 June 1968) was an elected member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council from 2012 until 2016. representing the Hong Kong Island geographical constituency. He was the chairman of the Hong Kong Civi ...

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 the first political party in Hong Kong. Founded in 1990, the short-lived party was the united front of the liberal democracy forces in preparation of the 1991 first ever direct election for the ...

(UDHK) between the years 1990–1994. Since 1994, he has been affiliated with the Democratic Party. 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 ( zh, c=何俊仁; 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 Movement ...

in the aftermath of the 2012 Legislative Council election. Sin lost narrowly to

Emily Lau Emily Lau Wai-hing (; born 21 January 1952) is a politician in Hong Kong who champions press freedom and human rights. A former journalist, she became the first woman directly elected on the Legislative Council of Hong Kong in the 1991 Leg ...

, 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 remaine ...

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

Silver Bauhinia Star The Silver Bauhinia Star (, SBS) is the second rank of the Order of the Bauhinia Star under 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 ...

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

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

, 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 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 ...

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)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sin, Chungkai 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 Political prisoners held by Hong Kong