Ann Chiang

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Ann Chiang Lai-wan, SBS, JP (Chinese: 蔣麗芸; born 16 May 1955) is a Hong Kong businesswoman and former politician. She served as a member of the Legislative Council for Kowloon West from 2012 to 2021. She chairs C&L Holdings and has been a non-executive director of Elec & Eltek International Holdings since 2005. She is the second daughter of Hong Kong entrepreneur Chiang Chen.

Education and career: Chiang earned a BA from Concordia University in 1981 and an MA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She also holds a diploma from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She was a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference from 1993 to 2013. In 2000 she joined the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and became its vice-chairman in 2007. She also served on the Council of the City University of Hong Kong.

Legislative career: She was elected to the Legislative Council in 2012 as the Kowloon West representative and was re-elected in 2016. She took her oath in Mandarin in 2016, which drew attention since Cantonese is the region’s dominant language and led to questions about oath validity when pronunciations were questioned.

Controversies and public statements: In 2019–2020, during the protests, she shared a Facebook video about Jimmy Sham’s sexual orientation; the post was removed for violating standards. She defended the post. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she claimed that masks could be steamed to sterilize and reuse, a claim health officials cautioned against. Fellow legislator Helena Wong called for her to step down from the Health Services Panel. Chiang stood by her statements, saying SARS-era workers would have been fine with steaming masks. In January 2021, she criticized university leadership for what she described as universities becoming breeding grounds for Hong Kong independence, blaming university representatives for the protests. Her legislative seat was abolished in 2021.