Hong Kong full of 'political rogues', says activist Chan Ching-sum

Chan Ching-sum is renowned for her glowering facial expressions whenever she and her comrades bombard the pan-democrats they describe as "Hong Kong-harming". But off the stage, the novice political activist is surprisingly cheerful.

Surprising, too, is the smoothness of the interview between the housewife-turned-household name and the South China Morning Post.

The convenor of Caring Hong Kong Power, a belligerently pro-government group founded in 2011, Chan has not been too successful in her media exposure. She was the first in RTHK's four-decade TV history to be bleeped for using indecent language in February. Later, the Hong Kong Economic Journal's attempt to have her sit down with a democracy-minded social activist ended with her walking out halfway through the debate.

"I used to believe in the media," said Chan, who is wearing her signature outfit of a Caring Hong Kong Power jacket. "I used to believe that the Hong Kong government was bad."

But there is no trace of such a belief in the present Chan. One of the most shared online pictures of the convenor and her compatriots is of them standing on the desks of a City University lecture hall, pointing at scholars and politicians supportive of the Occupy Central movement plan. This is the plan that those calling for universal suffrage - including University of Hong Kong legal scholar Professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting - believe will be the last available resort to achieving their goal.

"If there is no livelihood, then what's the use of democracy?" Chan asked. She criticised the pan-democrats for having unlimited demands: "When there was no universal suffrage, people asked for it; when there is, they ask for it to be real."