View source for Alan Hoo

{{Short description|Hong Kong barrister}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Alan Hoo Hong-ching
| native_name = {{nobold|胡漢清}}
| honorific-suffix = [[Silver Bauhinia Star|SBS]], [[Senior Counsel|SC]], [[Justice of Peace|JP]]
| image         =
| alt           =
| caption       =
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    =  {{birth date and age|1951|10|5|df=yes}}
| birth_place   = [[Hong Kong]]
| death_date    =
| death_place   =
| nationality   = [[Hong Kong people|Hong Kong Chinese]]
| other_names   =
| party = [[Liberal Party (Hong Kong)|Liberal Party]]
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Flora Cheong-Leen]]|1992|1992|end=div}}
* {{marriage|Yu Wai-man|1999|2008|end=div}}
* {{marriage|Liz Kong|2012}}
}}
| children = 3
| occupation    =
| years_active  =
| alma_mater = [[St. Paul's College, Hong Kong|St. Paul's College]]<br>[[London School of Economics]]
| known_for     =
| notable_works =
}}
'''Alan Hoo Hong-ching''', [[Silver Bauhinia Star|SBS]], [[Senior Counsel|SC]], [[Justice of Peace|JP]] ({{zh-t|胡漢清}}; born 5 October 1951) is a Hong Kong barrister and politician. He is the chairman of the Basic Law Institute, Hong Kong member of the [[Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]] (CPPCC) and vice-chairman of the [[Liberal Party (Hong Kong)|Liberal Party]].
==Biography==
Hoo was born in 1950 in Hong Kong and was educated at the [[St. Paul's College, Hong Kong|St. Paul's College]]. He later studied law at [[London School of Economics]] and was called to the Bar in England in 1973 and in Hong Kong in 1975. He became [[Queen's Counsel]] in 1990.
He was a member of the 400-member [[Selection Committee (Hong Kong)|Selection Committee]] which was responsible for electing the first [[Chief Executive of Hong Kong|Chief Executive]] in 1996. The Selection Committee was replaced by the [[Election Committee]] in which Hoo has been a member through the Legal subsector until he was defeated in 2006. He returned to the Election Committee through [[Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]] (CPPCC) subsector in 2011, in which he has been a Hong Kong delegate of the national advisory body.<ref name="Webb"/> He was made [[Justice of the Peace]] in 2002 and was awarded [[Silver Bauhinia Star]] (SBS) in 2004.
Hoo had been the leading [[pro-Beijing camp|pro-Beijing]] voice in the legal sector. In 2010, he criticised the [[Civic Party]] and the [[League of Social Democrats]] launching the "[[Five Constituencies Referendum]]" movement to trigger a ''de facto'' referendum by resigning members of the [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong|Legislative Council]] from each constituency. He said the move challenged the Chinese sovereignty and urged the government to amend law to fill the loophole.<ref>{{cite news|title=胡漢清指所謂公投令市民誤以為香港主權在民|date=28 January 2010|work=881903.com|url=http://www.881903.com/Page/ZH-TW/newsdetail.aspx?ItemId=197321}}</ref>
In 2014 in response to the [[Occupy Central with Love and Peace|Occupy Central]] plan put forwarded by the [[pro-democracy camp|pro-democrats]] to occupy the financial district in Hong Kong to pressure to the government to implement universal suffrage, Hoo said that the [[People's Liberation Army]] (PLA) should act on the basis of the national security law with the vacuum left by the absence of the [[Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Expert sees security law helping PLA|date=9 April 2014|work=The Standard|url=http://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news.php?id=144350}}</ref>
He joined the pro-business [[Liberal Party (Hong Kong)|Liberal Party]] in 2015 during the time the party leader [[James Tien Pei-chun|James Tien]] was stripped of his seat in the CPPCC after Tien urged Chief Executive [[Leung Chun-ying]] to consider stepping down at the height of the [[2014 Hong Kong protests]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Hong Kong lawyer and constitution expert Alan Hoo set to join Liberal Party|date=26 February 2015|newspaper=South China Morning Post|url=http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1723327/hong-kong-lawyer-and-constitution-expert-alan-hoo-set-join-liberal}}</ref> He became the vice-chairman of the party in October 2016.
In April 2016, Alan Hoo called on the Hong Kong government to immediately arrest members of newly-formed political parties, [[Demosisto]] and [[Hong Kong National Party]] (HKNP) of committing treason and sedition, over their advocacy on the [[Hong Kong independence]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1253986-20160412.htm|title=Arrest National Party, Demosisto members: Alan Hoo|date=12 April 2016|work=RTHK news}}</ref>
In May 2017, Hoo shocked the public when he said all Hong Kong underground spaces belong to China. The remarks came when he argued for the Chinese officers' right to enforce mainland laws beneath  the ground level in the cross-border terminus of the [[Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link Hong Kong Section]]. Hoo cited the 1997 decree by the [[PRC State Council]] which stipulated Hong Kong’s border details in which Hoo argued that the city’s autonomy only covered the land and sea "surfaces". Local legal professionals dismissed Hoo's remarks as "absurd" and legally erroneous.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2094934/basic-law-expert-wants-underground-border-checkpoint-express|title=All Hong Kong underground spaces 'belong to China', Basic Law expert says amid rail row over terminus checkpoint|date=19 May 2017|newspaper=South China Morning Post}}</ref>
==Personal life==
He married [[Flora Cheong-Leen]], a fashion designer and daughter of politician [[Hilton Cheong-Leen]] in 1992, but the marriage lasted only three months. He remarried in 1999 to Yu Wai-man  and had two children. The couple divorced in 2008. In 2012, he married Liz Kong Hei-man and had a daughter together.<ref name="Webb">{{cite web|title=Hoo, Alan Hong Ching 胡漢清|url=https://webb-site.com/dbpub/natperson.asp?p=3792|work=Webb-site Who's Who}}</ref>
In 2013, Hoo's mother Linda Chuan Yun-chuu called a press conference alleging that her only son had barred her from their [[Pok Fu Lam]] home and a home she owned in Shanghai. She also claimed that Hoo had refused to take her phone calls for six months or to return HK$11 million in cash. Hoo denied the accusations and stressed that he loved his mother very much. The two parties issued a joint statement three weeks later stating that they had reached a "satisfactory" conclusion.<ref>{{cite news|title=Top barrister Alan Hoo clears up 'misunderstanding' with mum|date=11 April 2013|newspaper=South China Morning Post|url=http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1211858/top-barrister-alan-hoo-clears-misunderstanding-mum}}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{HK Liberal Party}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoo, Alan}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:Barristers of Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Hong Kong Senior Counsel]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (Hong Kong) politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century King's Counsel]]
[[Category:Members of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]]
[[Category:Members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]]
[[Category:Members of the Selection Committee of Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 1998–2000]]
[[Category:Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2000–2005]]
[[Category:Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2012–2017]]
[[Category:Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2017–2021]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Silver Bauhinia Star]]
[[Category:Hong Kong Queen's Counsel]]