Regina Ip

Ip has 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 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.

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.

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.

Ip is widely known to be keen on the Chief Executive top post. She ran in both 2012 and 2017 Chief Executive elections but did not secure a minimum number of 150 nominations from the 1,200-member Election Committee to enter the race on both occasions.

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.

Supported by her New People's Party and a few electors from business sectors, Ip also gained a nomination from a pro-democrat elector from the Accountancy subsector, who wished to send Ip into the race to split Lam's votes. However, as Lam aimed to grab more than 600 nominations, Ip faced an uphill battle to secure her nominations. She urged "a certain candidate" not to ask for additional backing since that person had secured more than enough nominations already. Ip withdrew from the election, conceding the number of nominations hours before the nomination deadline on 1 March, for the second time after her 2012 bid. She received the number of nominations "far behind what was needed". She attributed her failure to the restrictive selection process of the 1,200 structure of the Election Committee membership as she was "squeezed out" by the Beijing-supported Lam and democrats-supported Tsang and Woo.

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.

Ip ran in the 2008 Hong Kong legislative election 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 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.

Ip became a controversial figure for her role advocating the passage of the national security 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 2007 Hong Kong Island by-election for the Legislative Council but was defeated by Anson Chan in the two-horse race. She ran again in the 2008 Legislative Council election and won, gaining a seat in the Hong Kong Island. She was re-elected in 2012 and 2016 elections.

Ip has been criticised for her perceived 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.

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.

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.

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. She was well known at that time as a hawkish, uncompromising figure in the Government, with some describing her as "a staunch, arrogant, authoritarian and yet outspoken bureaucrat." 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 national security legislation, Ip resigned from office on 25 June 2003, citing personal reasons.

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.

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 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.

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, GBS, JP (Chinese: 葉劉淑儀 ; born 24 August 1950) is a member of the Executive Council (ExCo) and Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), as well as the founder and current chairperson of the New People's Party. She was formerly a prominent government official of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and was the first woman to be appointed the Secretary for Security to head the disciplinary service.

Ip was born in what was then British Hong Kong in 1950; her father was a Chinese Singaporean trader Lau Fook-seng, and mother was actress Wa Choi-Fung (華彩鳳), the second wife of her father. She attended St. Stephen's Girls' College, after which she read English 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.

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. Regina Ip's husband died of liver cancer in 1997.