Claudia Mo Man-ching 毛孟靜

Claudia Mo Man-ching is a Hong Kong journalist and politician. In 2006, she became a founding member of the Civic Party (公民黨), which later became Hong Kong’s second-largest pro-democracy party. Holding more pro-localist views within the party, she went on to co-found Hong Kong First (香港本土) with Gary Fan (范國威) in 2013. Three years later, she formally left the Civic Party to focus on her work with Hong Kong First. Mo represented the Kowloon West constituency in the Legislative Council (LegCo) from 2012 until November 2020. She resigned alongside other pro-democracy lawmakers to protest against the government’s unwarranted disqualification of four of her colleagues. [1] 

Mo began her journalism career at Agence France-Presse (AFP). As their chief Hong Kong correspondent, she covered the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. As a reporter, she witnessed the brutality of the killings firsthand, an experience that sparked her political awakening. [2][3][4] Mo also spent time working at the Hong Kong Standard and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and later became a host for Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and a columnist for Apple Daily and Ming Pao. [5][6] Beyond journalism, over the course of her life, she has authored at least 10 books,[7] including two on raising children. 

As a lawmaker, Mo remained at the forefront of democratic resistance during Hong Kong’s political upheavals, notably the 2014 Umbrella Movement and the 2019 anti-extradition protests. [8] In November 2020, she resigned from LegCo alongside 14 other pro-democracy lawmakers in protest after the government disqualified four of their colleagues — a move widely seen as an escalation of Beijing’s crackdown on dissent. [9] 

On January 6, 2021, Mo was one of 55 activists arrested under the National Security Law (NSL) for organising and participating in a pro-democracy primary election. On February 28, 2021, she and 46 others were formally charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion.” Mo was denied bail, in part due to her correspondence with international media outlets, which authorities cited as grounds for concern under the NSL. In August 2022, she pleaded guilty, and in November 2024, she was sentenced to four years and two months in prison. While in prison, she has continued to support others by teaching English to fellow inmates and drawing strength from her Christian faith. [10]