Agnes Chow Ting (, born 3 December 1996) is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. She is a former member of the Standing Committee of Demosistō and former spokesperson of Scholarism. Her candidacy for the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election, supported by the pro-democracy camp, was blocked by authorities, due to her party's advocacy of self-determination for Hong Kong.
Personal life
Chow has described her upbringing as apolitical. Her social activism began around the age of 15, after being inspired by a Facebook post with thousands of young people agitating for change. According to Chow, her Catholic upbringing had an influence on her participation in the social movements.
In 2014, Chow attended Hong Kong Baptist University, where she studied government and international relations. In 2018, Chow deferred her final year of university studies in order to run in the Hong Kong Island by-election. Chow also renounced her British nationality, which was a qualification requirement mandated by the Basic Law.
Chow is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Japanese. She taught herself Japanese by watching anime. Chow has made appearances in Japanese media, interviews, and news programmes. Media outlets in Japan have referred to her as the "Goddess of Democracy" () for her role in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.
In February 2020, Chow launched a YouTube channel, where she uploaded vlogging videos in Cantonese and Japanese. As of December 2020, Chow had over 300,000 subscribers.
On 28 June 2021, local Hong Kong media reported that Chow's Facebook profile had been deleted. Chow did not respond to reporter questions on whether she deleted her profile on her own.
Early activism
Chow first came to prominence in 2012 as the spokesperson of student activist group Scholarism. Then a student at Holy Family Canossian College, she protested against the implementation of the Moral and National Education scheme, which critics deemed "brainwashing". During a demonstration, she met fellow activists Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam. The movement successfully drew thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Central Government Complex, which led to the government backing down in September 2012.
In 2014, Chow collaborated with student organizations to advocate electoral reform in Hong Kong. Chow was a leader of the class boycott campaign against the restrictive electoral framework set by the National People's Congress Standing Committee for the 2017 Chief Executive election, which led to the massive Occupy protests dubbed the "Umbrella Revolution". During the protests, citing heavy political pressure, Chow stepped away from politics, including resigning as spokesperson of Scholarism.
Demosistō
In the wake of Occupy, a new generation of younger, more radical democrats gained prominence and were looking to move into participatory politics. In April 2016, Chow co-founded political party Demosistō with Joshua Wong and Nathan Law, also student leaders in the Occupy protests. She was the first deputy secretary-general of the party, from 2016 to 2017. She campaigned with party chairman Law in the 2016 Legislative Council election, in which the latter was elected as the youngest-ever member of the Legislative Council. In 2017, she participated in the protest during the visit of Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, in which they covered the Golden Bauhinia statue with banners. She was arrested along with Law and Demosistō secretary-general Wong.
On 30 June 2020, Chow, Law and Wong announced that they had disbanded Demosistō, which they co-founded. The announcement came just hours before Beijing passed the national security law in Hong Kong, which raised concerns of political persecution of activists. She also said on Facebook that she is no longer conducting any international advocacy work.
Legislative Council bid
After Law was ejected from the Legislative Council over the oath-taking controversy in July 2017 and sentenced to imprisonment in August of the same year, Chow became Demosistō's candidate in the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election. To qualify for the election, she gave up her British citizenship. On 27 January 2018, her candidacy was disqualified by the Electoral Affairs Commission on the basis of that she "cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region."