Agnes Chow

Chow was arrested on 29 August 2019 at her Tai Po home, the same day other Hong Kong pro-democracy figures were arrested, including Joshua Wong and Andy Chan. She was the same day freed on bail, but her smartphone was taken away by police as well as phones of many other detained.

After Nathan Law was ejected from the Legislative Council over the oath-taking controversy in July 2017 and sentenced to imprisonment in August at same year, which barred Law from being candidate of public offices for 5 years, Chow became Demosistō's candidate in the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election. In order to be qualified to stand for election, she gave up her British citizenship. On 27 January 2018, her candidacy was disqualified by the Electoral Affairs Commission on the basis of that she "cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region]." Michael Davis, a former law professor of the University of Hong Kong, warned that Chow’s disqualification was wrong and the government was on a “slippery slope”, while former university law dean Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun said there was no legal basis for such a move. Basic Law Committee member Albert Chen Hung-yee said election rules were not clear if returning officers had the power to disqualify candidates based on their political views. Chief Executive Carrie Lam commented that "any suggestion of Hong Kong independence, self-determination, independence as a choice or self-autonomy is not in line with Basic Law requirements and deviates from the important principle of 'one country two systems.'" Were Chow elected, she would have been the youngest lawmaker in Hong Kong history.

In April 2016, Chow was one of the founding members of Demosistō with other former student leaders in the Occupy protests and was the first deputy secretary-general of the party from 2016 to 2017. She campaigned with party chairman Nathan Law in the 2016 Legislative Council election, in which the latter was elected as the youngest member of the Legislative Council in history. In 2017, she participated in the protest during the visit of Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, in which they covered the Golden Bauhinia statue with banners. She was arrested along with Demosistō chairman Nathan Law and secretary-general Joshua Wong.

Chow and other activists of Scholarism including Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam continued their involvement in social and political movements afterwards, notably the 2014 Hong Kong electoral reform. Chow was one of the leaders in the class boycott campaign against the restrictive electoral framework set by the National People's Congress Standing Committee on the 2017 Chief Executive election, which led to the massive Occupy protests dubbed the "Umbrella Revolution". During the occupation, Chow announced her stepping out of the politics by resigning as spokesperson of Scholarism, citing the "heavy pressure" and "extreme confusion and fatigue" she was facing.

Chow first came to spotlight in the anti-Moral and National Education movement as the spokesperson of student activist group Scholarism in 2012. At the time, she was studying at the Holy Family Canossian College and protested against the implementation of the Moral and National Education scheme which they deemed as "brainwashing". The movement successfully drew thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Central Government Complex which led to the backdown of the government in September 2012.

Agnes Chow Ting (Chinese: 周庭 , born 3 December 1996) is a Hong Kong social activist. She is the member of the Standing Committee of Demosistō and former spokesperson of Scholarism. Initially a candidate supported by the Pro-democracy camp for the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election, she was barred from running based on her party's stance on advocating self-determination for Hong Kong.