Lau Kong-wah


Lau Kong-wah, JP, also called Ray Lau, is a former Hong Kong Government official and former member of both the Legislative Council and the Executive Council. Until 2020, he was Secretary for Home Affairs.
Lau is vice-president of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong political party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, after founding the similarly aligned Civil Force in 1993. Before that, he was a member of the early pro-democracy party, United Democrats of Hong Kong.

Education

Lau Kong-wah received secondary education in St Paul's College, Hong Kong. He graduated from the University of Exeter and the City Polytechnic of Hong Kong.

Political career

Lau was a member of the United Democrats of Hong Kong. After losing in the 1991 LegCo election, running as 'Ray Lau', he left the party and founded the Civil Force. He subsequently joined the DAB in 1998.
On 14 October 2008, Chief Executive Donald Tsang appointed Lau a non-official member of the Executive Council, filling the vacancy left by the resignation of Jasper Tsang, a role he held, in parallel with his Legco seat, until June 2012.
In 2012, Lau lost his seat in the 2012 Hong Kong Legislative Council Election.
On 20 December 2012, he was appointed undersecretary for constitutional and mainland affairs by Chief Executive CY Leung, tasked with overseeing political reforms. During the 2014 Occupy movement, as one of five officials representing the government in the televised debate with student representatives, he was mocked for saying not a word, and was then widely represented as hiding inside a typical Hong Kong rubbish bin.
On 21 July 2015, Leung moved Lau to the role of Secretary for Home Affairs, a post he held through into the administration of Carrie Lam. He was removed from the post in a cabinet reshuffle on 22 April 2020.