Frederick Fung

Education and early political career

Fung was born in Hong Kong in 1953 with the family root of Dongguan. He entered the University of Hong Kong in 1974 but was ousted a year after because he spent too much time organising social movements and failed his exams. He then joined the pressure group Society for Community Organisation. He went to the United Kingdom in 1979 and obtained his undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Policy and Public Administration at the University of Bradford in 1982.

After he returned to Hong Kong, he ran in the 1983 Urban Council election, the first free direct election for the municipal election. At the time he was the chairman of the Hong Kong People's Council on Public Housing Policy (PCPHP). In 1986, he co-founded the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) as vice chairman. The ADPL became one of the three major pro-democracy political groups in the 1980s.

Colonial Legislative Council

In 1989, he replaced Ding Lik-kiu as chairman of the ADPL. Under his chairmanship, he refused to join his fellow democrats to form the United Democrats of Hong Kong, the first major pro-democracy party in 1990, citing the his association represented grassroots' interest whereas the United Democrats were more focused on the "middle class" At the time he also served as a member in the Hong Kong Housing Authority from 1990 to 1998.

In the first ever direct elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong in 1991, he ran in Kowloon West and became a legislator. A moderate pan-democrat, he is known for his middle-of-the-road strategy of "simultaneously negotiating with and confronting" Beijing, which, in his words, is to try to keep contact with the mainland authorities so you will have a chance to convince them to listen to your views. Such stance has been criticised by the mainstream and radical democrats as opportunistic and pulled him into controversy in the run-up to the 1997 handover. In 1996, he decided to join the Beijing-controlled Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Provisional Legislative Council with his party which created by Beijing as a counter legislature against the democratic legislature under Chris Patten, the last Governor of Hong Kong's electoral reform, while the other democrats boycotted the provisional legislature, criticising them as a backwards step for democracy.

Political career since 1997

Fung lost his seat in the 1998 Legislative Council election, the first legislative election after the SAR was established along with other ADPL members. He returned to the Legislative Council in the 2000 Legislative Council election and was elected in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

He was also member of the Sham Shui Po District Council from 1999 to 2015. He resigned as chairman of the ADPL after the defeat of the party in the 2007 District Council election. In the 2015 District Council election, he lost his seat in Lai Kok to a 25-year old newcomer, Chan Wing-yan, of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) and Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong with 99-vote margin, while former ADPL member Eric Wong Chung-ki stood against him.

On 8 December 2011, he decided to run for the 2012 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, but lost the primary election of pan-democracy camp to Democratic Party's Albert Ho Chun-yan. In the 2012 Legislative Council election, he ran for the new territory-wide District Council (Second) functional constituency "super seat" which was created under the 2010 Hong Kong electoral reform he supported and successfully returned to the Legislative Council. He was disqualified to run for the same constituency in 2016 Legislative Council election as he was unseated in his District Council seat in 2015. He chose to give up his long-time base in Kowloon West and ran in the New Territories West, but failed to win any seat.

He is a now part-time tutor at City University of Hong Kong's School Continuous and Professional Education (SCOPE).