Wu Chi-wai of the “Hong Kong 47” case, sentenced to 4 years and 5 months, released after completing his sentence

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On June 30, 2026, this website learned that Wu Chi-wai, one of the defendants in the “Hong Kong 47” case who was sentenced to 4 years and 5 months, was released today after completing his sentence.

Wu Chi-wai: Born on October 18, 1962, English name Wu Chi-wai, formerly a British Hong Kong national and currently a British and People’s Republic of China (Hong Kong) national, a citizen of Phoenix New Village in Wong Tai Sin District, Kowloon, Hong Kong, former Hong Kong Urban Council member, member of the Cheung Fu constituency of the Wong Tai Sin District Council, former Hong Kong Legislative Council member for the Kowloon East constituency, former convenor of the pro-democracy camp, former chairman of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, and Chinese political prisoner.

Although his ancestral home was Luoding, Guangdong, he grew up in Hong Kong and came from a grassroots background; after completing the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination in 1981, he became enthusiastic about social work, but in 1985 he decided to return to his studies and went to Macau to attend university, later continuing in 1987 at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee to pursue master’s degrees in economics and mathematics;

After completing his master’s courses in 1991, he abandoned his original plan and opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree, returned to Hong Kong, and served as an aide to Hong Kong Legislative Council member Lam Kui-shing;

In 1994, he ran for the first time in the Wong Tai Sin Upper Estate District Council election, but lost; the following year, however, he was elected as an Urban Council member;

In 1999, he ran in the Cheung Fu constituency of Wong Tai Sin for a seat on the District Council and was successfully elected;

Thereafter, in four consecutive Hong Kong District Council elections in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015, he was elected as a Wong Tai Sin District councillor each time with a large number of votes, until 2019, when he gave up seeking re-election and handed over the seat to former Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood member Mo Ka-yin; in 2011, he also completed a course in arbitration and dispute resolution at City University of Hong Kong and obtained a diploma; in the 2012 Hong Kong Legislative Council election, he won the Kowloon East constituency representing the Democratic Party;

In the 2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election, he again ran for the Kowloon East constituency representing the Democratic Party and was successfully re-elected after finishing second in the vote count; in December of the same year, during the Democratic Party leadership election, he was elected as the party’s new chairman with 92% of the confidence vote;

On June 8, 2019, he launched the “Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Bicycle Ride” in Kowloon, Hong Kong; during the event, he used a broadcast to criticize Chief Executive Carrie Lam for forcing through the amendment and called on citizens to take part in the large anti-amendment march launched by the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) on June 9;

In 2020, the CHRF launched a July 1 march for Hong Kong citizens, but the application to hold the march was rejected. He subsequently announced, together with CHRF deputy convenor Figo Chan and several pro-democracy district councillors, that they would jointly launch the July 1 march in their personal capacities. Its theme was the same as that of the march launched by the CHRF: opposition to the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law and insistence on the five demands. The route was from Tung Choi Street in Mong Kok to Chater Road in Central, but the march was quickly swept up and suppressed by the Hong Kong police; on November 1 of the same year, he was arrested by Hong Kong police, and after being released, he was arrested again on December 8 on suspicion of involvement in the “unlawful assembly case” concerning the 2020 July 1 march, and on the first day of the same month announced his resignation as a Legislative Council member;

On January 6, 2021, he was arrested after being charged in connection with the pro-democracy primary election case with “conspiracy to subvert state power”; on December 13, 2021, he was sentenced by the Hong Kong District Court to 4 months and 2 weeks’ imprisonment for “organizing or holding an unauthorized assembly”;

On August 18, 2022, in the HK47 case, he and 28 other defendants pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to subvert state power.” Accordingly, when the Hong Kong 47 case was sentenced collectively at the Hong Kong West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on November 19, 2024, although he had pleaded guilty in advance, he was still regarded as an “anti-China and destabilizing Hong Kong element” and sentenced to 4 years and 5 months’ imprisonment, with his sentence ending on June 30, 2026. He had previously been detained at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre.