Frederick Fung

Fung was born in Hong Kong in 1953 with the family root of Dongguan. He entered the University of Hong Kong in 1974 but was ousted a year after because he spent too much time organising social movements and failed his exams. He then joined the pressure group Society for Community Organisation. He went to the United Kingdom in 1979 and obtained his undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Policy and Public Administration at the University of Bradford in 1982.[1]

After he returned to Hong Kong, he was noted as one of the pioneers of the pro-democrats to participate in the electoral politics, by running in the 1983 Urban Council election, the first free direct election for the municipal council. He won a seat in Sham Shui Po East with 7,450 votes, which established his long time base in the district. At the time he was the chairman of the Hong Kong People's Council on Public Housing Policy (PCPHP). In 1986, he co-founded the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) as vice chairman. The ADPL became one of the three major pro-democracy political groups in the 1980s.

He participated in the pro-democracy primary of the March 2018 Kowloon West by-election after incumbent Yau Wai-ching of Youngspiration was ousted from the Legislative Council over the oath-taking controversy. His decision of running sparked intra-party conflicts. His candidacy was initially challenged by party's young member Kalvin Ho who later withdrew from the race. Former vice-chairwoman Rosanda Mok and all ADPL's Yau Tsim Mong and Kowloon City District Councillors quit the party in the midst of the intra-party primary, in protest against Fung's candidacy.[4] Fung eventually became the party's sole representative in the pro-democracy primary. He was defeated in the telephone polls and generic ballots in the primary to Yiu Chung-yim, the legislator who was also disqualified over the oath-taking controversy. According to the primary mechanism, Fung was a backup candidate in case Yiu was barred from running in the election. However, announced that he was under pressure to withdraw as a backup candidacy as agreed in the primary if Yiu was disqualified by the Electoral Affair Commission. "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. “I hope my withdrawal will allow the hatred to dissipate."[5]

In October 2018, Fung announced that he was standing in the November Kowloon West by-election, three months after quitting the ADPL, which intended to back unity pro-democracy candidate Lau Siu-lai. Amid criticism from allies, he declared that he was unhappy that another veteran, Lee Cheuk-yan, was chosen by the pro-democracy camp as Lau's backup, rather than himself, in case she was barred from running. When Lau was in fact barred by the government, Fung began campaigning in earnest, risking a catastrophic split in the democratic vote, and seemingly unconcerned that fellow democrats called him a "spoiler", "sore loser", and "a has-been politician who cares more about his ego than the causes he claims to espouse".[6][7][8] As a result, Fung received 12,509 votes, about five per cent of the total vote share while Beijing-backed Chan Hoi-yan won 106,457 votes, about 900 votes more than Fung and Lee combined.

Fung unsuccessfully ran for a seat on Yau Tsim Mong District Council, in Tsim Sha Tsui West constituency, during the 2019 local elections.[9] He then run in the 2021 Hong Kong legislative election but failed to win a seat[10]

• Politics of Hong Kong
• Democratic development in Hong Kong

• Legco biography