Eddie Chu

In 2016, he and like-minded, Demosisto's Nathan Law and Democracy Groundwork's Lau Siu-lai, contested in the Legislative Council election, where he ran in the New Territories West. He received the highest votes in the geographical constituencies by winning 84,121 votes without any party backing, leading the first runner-up, New People's Party's Michael Tien by about 13,000 votes.

During the campaign, Chu took on the Heung Yee Kuk over its land rights, drawing public attention to the long-time allegations of collusion between the government, business, landlords and triads behind the Wang Chau housing project, which made the government to scale down the housing project from 17,000 flats to only 4,000 due to the pressure from the powerful rural leader Tsang Shu-wo who owned the brownfield land in Wang Chau.[9] After the election, Chu was placed under round-the-clock police protection when he reported receiving death threats against him and his family.[10][11] The incident escalated into a political crisis in the following weeks as the government was questioned over the alleged collusion.[12][13]

In the Legislative Council, Chu initially joined the 27-strong pro-democrats' caucus with Nathan Law and Lau Siu-lai but soon quit the caucus.[14] In the 2017 Chief Executive election, he supported legislator Leung Kwok-hung of the League of Social Democrats (LSD) to run for the Chief Executive through an unofficial civil petition, despite the mainstream pro-democrats backed former Financial Secretary John Tsang.[15]

Chu was criticised for his remarks in the pro-democracy primary of the 2018 Legislative Council by-election. He had commented on Facebook warning the chance of veteran politician Frederick Fung, who became a backup candidate after losing to Chu-supported Yiu Chung-yim in the pro-democracy primary in case of Yiu's candidacy was disqualified, winning as voters might refuse to vote for him and therefore the camp should not blindly abide by the backup agreement. Fung later on announced his withdrawal as a backup candidacy, stating that he was under pressure. "Someone from the progressive democracy bloc told me that if I ran in the poll, they would definitely send someone as well [to challenge me],” Fung said. Chu denied he had been the one pressuring Fung to withdraw.[16] Chu was also held responsible after Yiu who was believed to be largely dependent on Chu's campaign strategy, was narrowly defeated in the by-election.[17]

In November 2018 Kowloon West by-election, Lau Siu-lai, Chu's ally who signed a joint declaration advocating Hong Kong people's right to determination, was banning from running in the election based on her "pro-independence stance" as Hong Kong independence was one of the options in self-determination. It was widely speculated that Chu, who also signed the same declaration would also be barred from running in the re-election.

In the same month Chu ran for the Village Representative election in Yuen Long. He was asked by Returning Officer Enoch Yuen if he agreed to uphold the Basic Law, agreed to recognise China's sovereignty over Hong Kong, and whether he supported Hong Kong independence. Chu restated his position that he has never supported Hong Kong independence: "I advocate and support the democratisation of the Basic Law and the political system – including but not limited to amending Article 158 and 159 of the Basic Law – as a goal of Hong Kongers’ self-determination after the Central Government blocked universal suffrage."

On 2 December, Chu was told that his candidacy was invalid, making him the tenth candidate barred from running in the election for his political belief and the first banned from running in the village-level election.[18]

The pro-democracy camp had successfully been filibustering the passage of the National Anthem Bill since October 2019, but their success was drawing to an end in May 2020.

On 8 May 2020, scuffles broke out in the Legislative Council (LegCo) as pro-establishment and pro-democracy lawmakers were vying for the empty seat of the house committee chair. Chu was trying to reach the seat through climbing a wall. He was removed by four security guards.[19]

On 18 May, Chu was involved in a further scuffle that resulted in his forcible removal from the LegCo chamber. The incident started when a group of representatives from the PDC attempted to break through a ring of security guards around member Chan Kin-por who, pursuant to his appointment from a week earlier, had taken the chairperson seat to prepare the election of the chairperson of the Legislative Council House Committee. Following the removal or boycott of most PDC members, the regular business of the council resumed, with Starry Lee being elected chairwoman of the house committee. Chu said of the incident that "If Hong Kong was a democracy, we would not need to start scuffles like this", but that he "can foresee more fights within the chamber and outside the chamber."[20]

On 28 May, during the second day of debate on the National Anthem Bill, Chu was ordered to leave the chamber on orders of President Andrew Leung for displaying a placard that was seen as mocking LegCo chairwoman Starry Lee. Chu's initial refusal to leave caused a delay in LegCo proceedings for about an hour. After the meeting resumed, fellow lawmaker Raymond Chan walked away from his seat to protest against the ejection of Chu, for which he was ordered by Leung to leave and later taken away by security guards.[21][22]

On 4 June, in an attempt to disrupt the third reading of the National Anthem Bill at the Legislative Council, Chu and fellow lawmaker, Raymond Chan, attempted to disperse pungent liquid towards the President of the Legislative Council, Andrew Leung. They were stopped before they could have reached the rostrum; Chan dropped the liquid and a lantern on the floor.[23][24] On 16 June, LegCo president Leung announced that Chu and Chan would be fined roughly HK$100,000 each for their actions. Chu declared the same day that he and Chan would examine and possibly challenge the decision.[23]

Chu resigned from the Legislative Council on 28 September 2020, citing that he would not serve in an "appointed legislature". Prior to his resignation, the Legislative Council term had been extended, upon authorization by the central government on request of the Hong Kong government, by a year in order to resolve the limbo that had been created by the postponement of the legislative election.[1]