Regina Ip

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, GBS, JP (Chinese: 葉劉淑儀; born 24 August 1950) is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), as well as the co-founder and current chairperson of the New People's Party and Savantas Policy Institute. She was formerly a prominent government official of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). She was the first woman to be appointed as Secretary for Security to head the disciplinary service.
Ip became a controversial figure for her role advocating the passage of legislation to implement Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23, and after this legislation was withdrawn, she became the first principal official to resign from the administration of Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. She took a sabbatical to study for a master's degree. She contested the Hong Kong Island by-election, 2007 for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong but was defeated by Anson Chan in the two-horse race. She ran again in the 2008 LegCo election and won, gaining a seating in the Hong Kong Island constituency. She was re-elected in 2012, and 2016 Legislative Council elections.

Ip was born in what was then British Hong Kong in 1950; her father was a Chinese Singaporean trader, and mother was an actress and a second wife of her father. She attended St. Stephen's Girls' College, after which she read literature at the University of Hong Kong, graduating with first-class honours; she later obtained a Master of Letters degree from the University of Glasgow, where she studied Elizabethan poet, Sir Philip Sidney.

In the 1970s Ip joined the Hong Kong Government as an Administrative Officer. In 1986, she, accompanied by her husband, went to Stanford Graduate School of Business to study for an MS in Management under the Sloan Programme. She took various bureaucratic positions before she was appointed Director of Industry Department in September 1995.

Ministerial career

In August 1996, she was appointed Director of Immigration – a post usually filled by officials from within the Immigration Department. She was the first woman to hold the post, and continued until after the 1997 handover. While she held that post, the UK government decided to grant full British citizenship for 50,000 Hong Kong families, and was also head of immigration during the right of abode saga, when the Hong Kong government requested the National People's Congress in Beijing to intervene after the courts ruled against the government, essentially granting the Hong Kong government the ability to simply ignore the court's ruling after it granted right of abode to the children of Hong Kong residents who held right of abode whether or not those children were born in Hong Kong.

In July 1998, Ip was appointed to the post of Secretary for Security – again, the first woman to hold that post – and became one of the so-called 14 principal officials and a member of the Executive Council during Tung Chee-hwa's second term in government on 1 July 2002. As security minister, she promoted the adoption of the controversial Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law. After massive public protests and the government's withdrawal of the proposed legislation, Ip resigned from office on 25 June 2003, citing personal reasons.

In 2003, Ip returned to Stanford University to pursue a master's degree in East Asian Studies, with Larry Diamond as her supervisor. Her thesis, Hong Kong: Case Study in Democratic Development in Transitional Society, reportedly expressed admiration for a bicameral system and suggested that political parties in Hong Kong be strengthened and be more inclusive. She returned to Hong Kong in 2006. She set up a policy think tank, Savantas Policy Institute, giving rise to media speculation that she was planning to run for the office of Chief Executive sometime in the future. In September 2007, she declared her intention to run for the Legislative Council in the Hong Kong Island by-election. She apologised for her handling of the Article 23 situation, hoped to put it behind her. However, she received only 43% of the vote, defeated by Anson Chan.

Legislative Councillor

Ip ran in the Hong Kong legislative election, 2008 in the Hong Kong Island geographical constituency, forming a ticket including dermatologist Louis Shih and two elected District Councillors, Albert Wong and Ronald Chan. Her ticket won a total of 61,073 votes, the second highest on Hong Kong Island and the fourth highest Hong Kong wide. She was sworn in as Legislative Councillor on 8 October 2008.

In January 2011, she launched a middle-class oriented party called New People's Party.. The party held two seats in the legislature, herself and Michael Tien, after the 2012 Legislative council election, in which Ip was elected with 30,289 votes, despite losing almost half of the votes. She was subsequently appointed to the Executive Council of Hong Kong by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying after the election, in which she served until December 2016 when she ran for the Chief Executive for the second time. Her party expanded its district base when it allied with the Civil Force in 2014. Ip was re-elected to the Legislative Council in 2016, with the highest votes of 60,760 in Hong Kong Island.

2012 Chief Executive bid

Ip was known to be interested in the Chief Executive post. She expressed her intention to run in the 2012 election but dropped out on 15 December. Following a number of scandals surrounding Henry Tang, Ip re-announced her candidacy in the race on 20 February. She withdrew her candidacy after failing to receive enough nominations before the deadline and thus did not qualify to stand for the election on 29 February, which made her campaign last for only nine days.

2017 Chief Executive bid

Ip had expressed her intention to consider running in the 2017 Chief Executive election. After incumbent Leung Chun-ying announced he would not seek for re-election, Ip resigned from the Executive Council to launch her campaign. She announced her candidacy on 15 December under the campaign slogan "Win back Hong Kong" after receiving her party's endorsement. She called for a relaunch of the electoral reform process under Beijing’s restrictive framework as decreed by the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) on 31 August 2020. She also pledged to enact controversial Article 23 with "suitable measures".

Ip got emotional and tear-eyed in a media gathering, "[I]n the past ten years I started from nothing, working hard bit by bit, splashing out my own money, putting in much mental and physical effort," Ip said as her voice shook. "Can you say I had not taken on responsibilities for the Hong Kong society? When I handled Article 23, I did not perform satisfactorily?" she defended herself, "I have taken responsibility under the accountability systemand have already apologised multiple times. I was not shameless, I did not hold onto my powers. I stepped down from the administration. I'll leave for society to judge whether I have the guts to take on responsibilities. I definitely have taken on a lot of responsibilities." Ip's remarks came after Leung Chun-ying praised Lam for her "ability and willingness to take on responsibilities" As Carrie Lam declared her candidacy and Tsang was expected to run, political analysts said that could endanger Regina Ip's chances of getting the minimum 150 nominations to enter the race. Ip revealed that two or three electors, including businessman Allan Zeman, have turned their backs on her to support Lam.

Ip has taken controversial stances during her career including advocating for the Public Order Ordinance and defending government policy denying right of abode to the children of Hong Kong people born in mainland China since the 1997 handover.

Article 23

Protests march against Article 23 in 2003

According to Ku, Ip had turned herself into a provocative political figure due to her departure from the 'institutionalised bureaucratic ritual' adopted by civil servants in the past. she spearheaded the government's attempt to codify Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23, and pushed hard for it to be legislated by July 2003. Between September 2002 and July 2003 her popularity plunged. In October 2002, she made a remark about Adolf Hitler at the City University.

Ip downplayed any opposition to the bill, predicting only 30,000 people would show up at the planned demonstration(s). Ip blamed political and religious leaders for creating a "herd mentality". Her popularity plummeted when one remark after another contradicted popular opinion, most notably in regard to her commitment to push the bill despite the commotion and chaos of the SARS outbreak in 2003. Concerned by the government's determination to force through the bill, up to 500,000 people marched to protest on 1 July 2003.

A comic book caricature of Regina Ip

Ip became a reviled figure. Detractors also took shots at her bushy hairstyle, nicknaming her "Broomhead" (掃把頭). This included a comic book which caricatured her in police uniform and signature bushy hairstyle. She openly admitted that although she disliked the nickname, she would not change her hairstyle just to please her critics. She had knowingly put on a performance which would harm her popularity, and said "I think I would like to be remembered as somebody who was not afraid to speak out, even if that might affect my popularity." Ip later said "I made a mistake in promoting the bill" and apologized for remarks she had made while pushing for Article 23.

Views on democracy

Ip has been criticised for her inconsistent stance toward democracy. Following her return from the United States, she shifted her public position during her campaign for a seat in the legislative assembly in 2007 by saying "the only way forward for Hong Kong is complete democratization", in contrast to her position before. Todd Crowell of the Asia Times referred to her as a "born-again democrat". Anson Chan, her main rival supported by the Pro-democracy camp in the 2007 by-election, labelled her a "fake democrat" because of this.

Views on press freedom

In July 2008, Ip was once again embroiled in controversy for her comments about police tactics used against reporters covering the heated scenes in queues for Olympics tickets. In commenting about the man-handling of Hong Kong reporters by the Beijing police, she had said that "neck-shoving [techniques]... were most effective in stopping trouble-makers". The following day, she stated that she supported freedom of the press and apologised for the "slip of the tongue", clarifying that she was neither implying that journalists were troublemakers, nor endorsing the actions of the police. Democratic Party lawmaker Yeung Sum said this Freudian slip showed up her true colours.

Views on Occupy Central

Ip opposed Occupy Central, and endorsed actions taken by the police against protesters. She claimed that the Occupy Central pro-democracy protesters frequently utilized smartphone apps to organize, plan, and prepare their activities. Ip specifically singled out Twitter, Google Maps, Firechat, Telegram and Zello Walkie Talkie as the apps most used by the student activists to communicate among themselves. To justify the use of these apps as evidence of foreign interference, Ip claimed that Zello Walkie Talkie was used in Taiwan’s Sunflower Student Movement and the Ukraine Orange Revolution. Both student movements allegedly received assistance from external parties.

Alleged racist comments on Filipino maids

In April 2015, Ip wrote in a controversial article in Ming Pao that she had received complaints while she was Secretary for Security from 1998 to 2003, from "foreign women" in Discovery Bay that the government was "allowing Filipino domestic helpers to seduce their husbands", and was accused of being sexist and racist by many media reports. The Philippines consulate expressed its concern over the "unfortunate choice of words" by Ip. A domestic helpers advocacy group demonstrated in front of her office, calling on her to apologise. She apologised to those who were offended by her and insisted that the article was misinterpreted.

Views on fur wearing

Ip was under fire for wearing a red mink coat to a Legislative Council meeting in January 2016. She defended her clothing choice, saying that "wearing fur is actually the same as eating beef…Mink farming can be more humane than rearing chicken or cattle." She was criticised by animal rights activists.

Lying about Liaison Office visit

On 5 September 2016 one day after the 2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election in which she was re-elected, Ip's car was photographed at the Liaison Office. She told Ming Pao that she was not in the car and she was sending some books she wrote to her friends there. She later admitted that she lied about it as she was requested by the other party to keep the visit confidential. She was criticised as the pan-democrats had been accusing the Liaison Office for meddling in local politics and elections. She apologised to the public and Ming Pao and denied that she was there for thanking the Liaison Office for its support.

Ip married engineer Sammy Ip Man-ho (1935–1997) in 1981. Sammy Ip was a son of Ip Ching-ping, founder of the Ching Hing Construction Company. Sammy Ip has a sister Henrietta Ip who was a member of the Legislative Council (1982–1991). Their marriage was opposed by Sammy Ip's family. The couple has a daughter, Cynthia Ip Wing-yan, who was born in 1989. Her husband died of liver cancer in 1997.

• Regina Ip outlines her LegCo agenda