Claudia Mo


Claudia Mo, also known as Claudia Bowring, is a Hong Kong journalist and politician, a member of the pan-democracy camp. She is a member of Legislative Council, representing the Kowloon West geographical constituency.

Personal life and education

Mo was born in Hong Kong and has family roots in Ningbo, Zhejiang. Mo is married to journalist Philip Bowring, former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, and they have two sons.
She attended St. Paul's Secondary School in Hong Kong. After graduating in 1975, she went to Toronto for pre-university qualifications and in 1979 she obtained a Bachelor's degree in journalism with English studies from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
After graduating she worked at Agence France-Presse translating French wires into Chinese. She was later promoted to chief Hong Kong correspondent for AFP, covering in this role the Tiananmen Square massacre, an event which she describes as a "watershed that cemented my journalistic principles and political beliefs".
She continued her work as a journalist at The Standard and TVB. She also hosted a number of RTHK TV and radio programmes, including "Media Watch" and "City Forum".
Mo wrote a book called We Want True Democracy, published in 2015, and has also authored English language learning books.

Politics

Mo is a founding member of the Civic Party in 2006. She first ran in the Kowloon West geographical constituency in the 2008 Legislative Council election but was unsuccessful.
In the 2012 election, she won one of the constituency's five available seats. She ran with the slogan "Against Mainlandisation" which led to controversy within the party, as the Civic Party used the slogan "Against Communistisation." After her election, she was considered more pro-localist within the party. She formed the "HK First" with Neo Democrats' Gary Fan to work on the localist agenda.
In the 2016 election, she was re-elected with the slogan of "self-determination". She later quit the Civic Party on 14 November 2016, citing differences with the party on localism, filibuster and other issues. She said she would continue serving the legislature as an "independent democrat" under the label "HK First".

Insult from Junius Ho

During a 2019 Legislative Council meeting, Pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho made a remark directed toward Claudia Mo, stating that she is used to "eating foreign sausage." Mo, who is married to British journalist Philip Bowring, later told the council that the comment was "blatantly sexist, racist and it amounts to sexual harassment." Ho refused to apologise and was expelled from the meeting.

Television career