Lau smuggled from Guangzhou to Hong Kong in 1960. Since the 1980s, he has been a labour activist, working to help factory workers in Sham Shui Po and Cheung Sha Wan, where working conditions were poor. During the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Lau and other pro-democracy activists expressed sympathy and support to the student demonstrators who had gathered at Tiananmen Square. He and others also founded the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organises the anniversary commemoration of the 1989 protests. In 1990, Lau and other labour activists, including Lee Cheuk-yan, established the 160,000-strong Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions. Lau ran in the Hong Kong legislative elections in 1991, and was elected. Lau was re-elected four times. Lau was a lawmaker continuously from 1991 to 2008, except he resigned in 1994 but elected again in 1995, a brief period during 1997 and 1998 when the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred to the People's Republic of China, and the Legislative Council temporarily became a Provisional Legislative Council which was filled with people indirectly hand picked by Beijing. In recent years, however, Lau has moderated his stance against Beijing. He was expelled from the Democratic Party in 2000 because of having an identity of two parties. Once branded subversive by the central authorities, Mr Lau had been barred from entering mainland China for more than a decade. In May 2000, after quiet lobbying by Hong Kong top leaders, he was allowed to make a low-key visit to Guangzhou to see his ailing mother. Since then, he has been urging his pro-democracy colleagues to have "better communication with the Central Government" and visit mainland China and see for themselves the changes that are taking place in the country. Lau lost his seat in the Legislative Council in the Legislative Election of 2008 with only 5.1% or 10,553 votes. On a radio program in September 2008, he announces that he has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He says the cancer is under control.
