Starry Lee

Starry Lee Wai-king, SBS, JP (Chinese: 李慧琼, born 13 March 1974 in British Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong politician, chairperson of the largest pro-establishment Beijing-loyalist party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). She is a Legislative Councillor for the District Council (Second) functional constituency and a Kowloon City District Councillor. From 2012 to 2016, she was a member of the Executive Council.

The Honourable Starry Lee Wai-king SBS, JP
李慧琼
Lee in November 2016
Chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 April 2015
Preceded by	Tam Yiu-chung
Member of the Executive Council
In office 1 July 2012 – 17 March 2016
Appointed by	Leung Chun-ying
Preceded by	Lau Kong-wah
Succeeded by	Ip Kwok-him
Member of the Legislative Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 October 2012
Preceded by	New constituency
Constituency	District Council (Second)
In office 1 October 2008 – 30 September 2012
Preceded by	Tsang Yok-sing
Succeeded by	Ann Chiang
Constituency	Kowloon West
Member of the Kowloon City District Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 January 2000
Preceded by	New constituency
Constituency	To Kwa Wan North
Personal details
Born	13 March 1974 British Hong Kong
Political party	Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong
Alma mater	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology University of Manchester
Occupation	Councillor
Profession	Accountant
Signature

Starry Lee
Chinese	李慧琼
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lǐ Huìqióng Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Léih Waih-kìhng Jyutping Lei^5 Wai^6-king^4

Biography

Born in 1974 in Hong Kong into a working-class family and brought up on a public housing estate,[1] Lee obtained her Bachelor of Business Administration from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Master of Business Administration from the University of Manchester. She became a professional accountant, working for KPMG in Hong Kong and is currently the principal at CCIF CPA Ltd.

Lee first stood in the District Council elections in 1999 for the Kowloon City District Council, the neighbourhood where she lived. She was elected aged 26, the youngest district councillor at that time.[2] She joined the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong when she was approached by the former party chairman Tsang Yok-sing around 2004. She was asked to become the part of Tsang's team in the following Legislative Council election in September 2004.[3] She was listed third on the candidate list and helped Tsang to win a seat in the Kowloon West.

With her professional background, Lee became a new star in the party and also the pro-Beijing camp. She was elected to the Legislative Council with around 39,000 votes, nearly 19 percent of the vote share, when Tsang left the constituency for Hong Kong Island in the 2008 Legislative Council election. In 2011, she was elected as the vice-chairwoman of the party.

In 2012, she was appointed to the Executive Council by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. At the time, she was the only person to hold positions in three different levels of representative councils, the Executive, Legislative and District Councils. She served on the Executive Council until her resignation in March 2016, when she said she wanted to focus on her work on the Legislative Council and the party. Her position was taken by Ip Kwok-him, a veteran DAB legislator.[4]

In the 2012 Legislative Council election, Lee contested in the newly created territory-wide District Council (Second) "super seats". Her ticket received over 270,000 votes in total. On 17 April 2015, she was elected as the first woman to chair the DAB, succeeding Tam Yiu-chung.[5]

After Lee was re-elected in the 2016 Legislative Council election, she succeeded Andrew Leung of the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) to become the chairperson of the Legislative Council House Committee, the second highest office in the legislature. In 2018, she was invited to sit on the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).[6]

On 18 May 2020, Lee was re-elected as House Committee chairperson. Prior to the vote, Chan Kin-por, the nominee of Legislative Council president Andrew Leung, had taken the seat of the presiding member – a position which had been held since October 2019 by pro-democrat Dennis Kwok – with the help of security personnel, and 15 pro-democratic lawmakers had been removed from the meeting room after scuffles had broken out; during Lee's election, three pro-democrats sat outside the room in protest. After the physical removal of the pro-democratic lawmakers, Lee was elected. [7][8]

See also

• District Council (Second)

References

1. Chan, Bernard (30 April 2015). "Breaking the mould in Hong Kong politics". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 2 June 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
2. "Jasper Tsang – Laws of attraction". Archived from the original on 16 September 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
3. Chan, Quinton (21 August 2006). "Life in the patriotic camp". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
4. Wong, Hermina (17 March 2016). "Breaking: CY Leung appoints Ip Kwok-him to Executive Council following Starry Lee's resignation". Hong Kong Free Press.
5. "民 建 聯 領 導 層 改 選 李 慧 琼 當 選 主 席". RTHK. 17 April 2015. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015.
6. "第十三屆全國政協香港委員名單 - 香港文匯報". paper.wenweipo.com (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 31 January 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
7. Wong, Natalie; Lam, Jeffie (18 May 2020). "Chaos at Hong Kong's Legislative Council as opposition lawmakers thrown out as pro-establishment bloc installs chairwoman on key committee". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
8. Creery, Jennifer; Wong, Rachel (18 May 2020). "Anthem law: Hong Kong pro-Beijing lawmaker elected committee chair as democrats carried out by security". Hong Kong Free Press. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.

External links

• Official Website of Starry Lee
• HK Legislative Council - Members' Biographies