Junius Ho

Early life

Ho came from a family of village leaders. He grew up in the old site of Leung Tin Village (Chinese: 良田村) in Tuen Mun. He is a 32nd-generation descent of his Hakka clan which can be traced back to the 10th century.

Ho attended Queen's College Hong Kong from 1975 to 1979, after which he went to the United Kingdom, where he enrolled at Anglia Ruskin University (formerly known as Chelmer Institute of Higher Education) and obtained his Bachelor of Law's degree in 1984. Ho joined a post-graduate programme at the University of Hong Kong in 1984 and obtained his Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL) in 1986. He was bestowed an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Anglia Ruskin University in 2011.

Career

After gaining his qualifications he was admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong in 1988 and was similarly admitted in other jurisdictions in Singapore and England and Wales in 1995 and 1997. He is the senior partner of a law firm in Hong Kong and a principal representative of a law firm in Guangzhou. His major practice field is civil litigation, specialising in shareholders' disputes and family disputes. He was appointed a China-Appointed Attesting Officer in 2003.

He became the Vice-President (June 2005 – May 2011) and Council Member of the Law Society of Hong Kong (May 2012 – present) and was elected as the President of the Law Society of Hong Kong (May 2011 – May 2012). Ho was appointed an independent director of Hong Kong Football Association.

Political career

Ho first contested in the Legislative Council election in 2008, running against Civic Party's Margaret Ng in the Legal functional constituency. He was defeated, receiving 1,286 votes, about 34 per cent of the total vote share.

Ho was elected as Chairman of Tuen Mun Rural Committee in 2011, ousting the long-time chairman and most powerful rural leader, chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk Lau Wong-fat. On that capacity he was also an ex officio member of the Tuen Mun District Council. He served as the rural committee chairman until 2015. He has also been a spokesman for the New Territories Concern Group. He was a candidate in the Legislative Council election in New Territories West in September 2012, where he received 10,805 votes, about two per cent of total vote share and was not elected.

He was a leading critic of the legal scholar Benny Tai's Occupy Central with Love and Peace which suggested a full-scale occupation protest in the form of civil disobedience to press the Beijing government to make concession on the electoral reform. He set up an anti-Occupy group called "Protect Central" which he said would resist the "Occupy" campaign. Being a hardcore pro-government figure, Ho was appointed to Lingnan University council by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying in October 2015. Students staged a protest against their appointment over fears of political interference of university governance.

In the 2015 District Concil elections, Junius Ho defeated Albert Ho of the Democratic Party in the latter's long-held Lok Tsui seat in a six-way contest by a narrow margin of 277 votes, as the pro-democracy votes were split between Albert Ho and Cheng Chung-tai of Civic Passion. Ho ran again in the 2016 Legislative Council election where he was reportedly backed by the Central People's Government's Liaison Office in Hong Kong. During the election, Ho and his supporters were allegedly involved in Liberal Party candidate Ken Chow Wing-kan's drop-out who claimed he had been intimated. Ho was elected with 35,657 votes, more than three times than the previous election, winning last of the nine seats in the New Territories West.

Homophobic remarks

Ho has made controversial statements. In late April 2017, following a lawsuit on government benefits for civil workers who are in a same-sex relationship, Ho said that legalisation of same-sex marriage in Hong Kong would lead to acceptance of bestiality and incest.

Fellow LegCo member Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, who is openly gay, condemned Ho's comments, and said those who sincerely hold such thoughts should seek professional help. Holden Chow, also a member of LegCo, also criticised Ho's remarks, stating that he did not need to be so extreme in his comments. Prominent lawyer, Kevin Yam, criticised Ho's linking of bestiality with homosexuality as "a vile form of homophobia", while Ho riposted that his remarks were taken out of context and that criticism was a personal attack on him because of his political views.

In May 2017, Ho said that a ruling granting marriage benefits to a gay civil servant could lead to "chaos in society" and co-signed a petition asking the government to appeal the decision.

Views on 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre

On June 2017, Junius Ho became the only pro-Beijing lawmaker to vote in favour of a motion to “never forget” the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre at the Legislative Council. He expressed sympathy for the Chinese students before the People’s Liberation Army crackdown.

Demanding the removal of Benny Tai

In August 2017, Ho called for the removal of Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai, who as of 2017, is facing charges of inciting others to create public nuisance, from working at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) for the social unrest and pro-independence sentiment, but rejected by the HKU Vice-Chancellor Peter Mathieson and HKU Council chairman Arthur Li. Ho submitted a petition with over 80,000 signatures urging the University of Hong Kong to investigate Tai and organise a rally on September 17 calling for his removal. Ho himself acknowledges that the number of online-signatures is unverifiable. As to the legality of the rally, Ronny Tong Ka-wah pointed out that the Public Order Ordinance could have been violated.

Views on Hong Kong independence

Ho has advocated for extrajudicial killings for those who support Hong Kong independence.

In September 2017, Ho said supporters of Hong Kong independence need to be "mercilessly killed". He made the comments both at a rally which he organised to demand that the University of Hong Kong to fire Benny Tai. He stated that it was "not big deal to kill pigs or dogs", and also appeared on a Commercial Radio programme, where he said of pro-independence activists, "why shouldn’t these people be killed?" Faced with criticism, Ho responded, "If we’re talking about Hong Kong independence, that means war. What’s wrong with killing enemies in a war?"

Ho's remarks were condemned by figures on both sides of the political spectrum. Senior Counsel Ronny Tong said that Ho's comments may have violated the Public Order Ordinance. Chief executive Carrie Lam, who is anti-independence, alluded to Ho's comments after she stated on 19 September that "unacceptably cruel, insulting and intimidating comments" had no place in a civilised society. Executive Council member Regina Ip called Ho's remarks "stupid", and continued, "It will do our country no good to have stupid 'patriots', including possibly quite a few hired to become 'patriots'."

Ho maintained that he was expressing his contempt towards the evil of pro-independence movement, and said that the journalists should not take his words out of context.

Business

Charity

Community

Political

Personal life

He is married with 3 children, and he used to live in Tuen Mun.