Gary Fan
Gary Fan Kwok-wai | |
|---|---|
范國威 | |
 Gary Fan in 2015 | |
| Member of the Legislative Council | |
| Assumed office 12 March 2018[1] | |
| Preceded by | Sixtus Leung |
| Constituency | New Territories East |
| In office 1 October 2012 – 30 September 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Seat Created |
| Succeeded by | Sixtus Leung |
| Constituency | New Territories East |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 October 1966 British Hong Kong |
| Political party | Democratic Party (1996–2010) The Frontier (1996–97) Social Democratic Forum (2000–02) Neo Democrats (since 2010) HK First (since 2013) |
| Residence(s) | Tseung Kwan O, New Territories |
| Alma mater | Academy of Art University San Francisco State University |
| Occupation | Legislative Councillor District Councillor |
| Website | garyfan |
| Gary Fan | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 范國威 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 范国威 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Gary Fan Kwok-wai (Chinese: 范國威; born 30 October 1966) is a Hong Kong politician. He is the member of Legislative Council from 2012 to 2016 and from 2018 after winning the 2018 by-election for New Territories East. He is also the current member of the Sai Kung District Council for Wan Hang. Former leader of the reformist faction in the Democratic Party, he led the reformists splitting from the party to from the Neo Democrats over the controversial 2010 constitutional reform proposal, taking a moderate localist stance.
Party politics
Of Hakka ancestry, Gary Fan is a graduate of San Francisco State University.
Fan joined the Democratic Party after returning to Hong Kong. Fan was a leading member of the Democratic Party, including membership of the standing committee of its central committee.[2][3] He and vice-chairman Chan King-ming, who both belonged to the Reformist faction, were suspected of involving in spying activities of China in an investigation by the Mainstream faction.
Fan opposed to the Democratic party's stance on the Five Constituencies Referendum movement and support of the constitutional reform package in 2010. He and Chan King-ming as well as other Reformists quit the Democratic Party in December 2010. Before that they had already formed the Neo Democrats political grouping on 2 October 2010. He held the position of one of its four convenors from 2010 to 2012.
In the 2012 LegCo elections, Fan won a new seat in the New Territoires East geographical constituency created under the 2010 constitutional reform package.
Legislative councillor
Gary Fan has taken an anti-immigration stance in the Legislative Council, which was different from other pan-democrats who are considered friendly with the new arrivals. Fan has been frequently calling for the government to take back the approval rights on One-way Permits from Chinese authorities and to reduce the quota of such permits.[4] Fan also refers to immigrants from mainland China and the quota of 150 daily permits as "the root of the housing problem".[5]
In January 2013, Gary Fan and Claudia Mo formed a group called "HK First". They co-sponsored a controversial ad which claimed that reducing immigration would help the people of Hong Kong to get to the bottom of the housing problem, while rejecting claims of bias or discrimination against mainlanders,[6] despite condemnation from the Equal Opportunities Commission.[7] Fan later introduced a motion on adhering to the need to "put Hong Kong people first" in formulating policies, but the motion was ultimately defeated.[8]
He lost his seat in New Territories East in the 2016 Legislative Council election, due to the unexpectedly that Andrew Cheng returned which had claimed to split his votes. As a result, he resigned his party position as an executive committee member.
He returned to the Legislative Council in the 2018 New Territories by-election following the disqualification of localist Baggio Leung of Youngspiration over the Legislative Council oath-taking controversy in March. He was elected with more than 180,000 votes, defeating the pro-Beijing common candidate Tang Ka-piu of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB).[9]
District councillor
He was first elected as District Councillor in the Sai Kung District Council for Wan Hang in 1999. He was re-elected by a comfortable majority on 22 November 2015. [10] As a District Council member he serves on various committees:
- District Facilities Management Committee
- Social Services and Healthy and Safe City Committee
- Housing and Environmental Hygiene Committee
- Traffic and Transport Committee
- Finance and Administration Committee[11]
As well as being a district councillor, Fan is also a part-time tutor at the Open University of Hong Kong.
See also
References
- ^ Hong Kong Gazette G.N. 2022
- ^ Democrats lick wounds as 30 reform radicals quit Archived 16 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine, The Standard, Colleen Lee, 20 December 2010
- ^ Neo Democrats set out their store, RTHK, 23 January 2011, Accessed 23 January 2011
- ^ "Lawmakers deny bias against mainlanders". The Standard. 15 October 2013. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Lo, Alex (15 October 2013). "Lawmakers Gary Fan and Claudia Mo take disingenuous stand on housing". South China Morning Post.
- ^ Chong, Tanna (14 October 2013). "Legislators defend controversial advert on mainland migrants". South China Morning Post.
- ^ But, Joshua (12 October 2013). "Head of equality watchdog condemns lawmakers' ad on mainland migrants". South China Morning Post.
- ^ "Legislaitve Council of Hong Kong" (PDF).
- ^ "Election Result - New Territories East". Electoral Affairs Commission.
- ^ "Election Results". www.elections.gov.hk. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^ Bio on web page of Sai Kung District Council Archived 19 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- 1966 births
- Living people
- District councillors of Sai Kung District
- Hong Kong people of Hakka descent
- HK LegCo Members 2012–16
- HK LegCo Members 2016–20
- San Francisco State University alumni
- Neo Democrats politicians
- Democratic Party (Hong Kong) politicians
- The Frontier (Hong Kong) politicians
- Social Democratic Forum politicians
- Hong Kong pan-democrats
- Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
- Academy of Art University alumni