Owen Chow Ka-shing (邹家成) — Person Profile
Owen Chow Ka-shing (邹家成, born 10 February 1997), also rendered Zou Jiacheng (the Mandarin-pinyin roster form) and known in English press coverage in the short form Owen Chow, is a Hong Kong localist political figure serving a lengthy prison term under Hong Kong’s National Security Law. He is best known as one of the 45 pro-democracy defendants sentenced in November 2024 in the “Hong Kong 47” case, the largest national-security prosecution since the law’s imposition in 2020; having pleaded not guilty, he received 7 years and 9 months’ imprisonment on November 19, 2024. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists him in its 7-years-9-months-sentence band, confirming he remains in custody serving his term as of that date.
The case
Chow first entered electoral politics during the 2019 District Council elections, standing in the Tai Wai constituency of Sha Tin. In early 2020 he became a prominent voice among the “localist resistance” camp ahead of that year’s Legislative Council election. He initiated the “Ink Has Dried, Resistance Unwavering” declaration, which gathered pro-democracy primary candidates around a shared pledge to use legislative powers — including vetoing the government budget — to press the authorities to answer the “five demands” of the 2019 protest movement. His campaign slogan was “Reject Colonialism, Resist Through National Identity.” He contested the pro-democracy primaries for the 2020 Legislative Council election in July 2020, placing fifth in New Territories East and securing a nomination for the general election, which was subsequently postponed. On January 6, 2021, Chow was arrested in a mass sweep of more than 50 pro-democracy politicians, activists and campaigners over the unofficial primaries. On February 28, 2021, he was among 47 people formally charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the National Security Law. Bail was initially refused by a designated national-security judge; he was later granted bail by the High Court, then re-arrested on January 12, 2022 after Facebook posts made during his bail period were deemed a threat to national security and a breach of bail conditions, and his bail was revoked. In May 2024 the court convicted 14 of the 47 defendants who had pleaded not guilty (two were acquitted); most of the 45 sentenced defendants had already spent nearly four years in custody. On November 19, 2024, a Hong Kong court sentenced 45 of the 47 defendants to prison terms ranging from four to ten years. Chow, who pleaded not guilty, received 7 years and 9 months’ imprisonment. Separately, on March 16, 2024, the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts had sentenced him to 5 years and 1 month in connection with the storming of the Legislative Council on July 1, 2019. Whether the two terms run concurrently or consecutively has not been independently verified and is not stated here. The November 2024 sentencing drew immediate condemnation from foreign governments and rights organizations: Human Rights Watch called the sentences a measure of how fast Hong Kong’s civil liberties had declined; the Hong Kong Democracy Council described the ruling as repression of Hongkongers who stand up for their rights; Australia’s government issued a statement calling on China to cease suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, media and civil society, and the United States consulate in Hong Kong registered objections. Amnesty International UK’s 2026 mapping of Hong Kong censorship records Chow’s 7-year-9-month sentence as a key moment in the criminalization of political participation.
Status and evidentiary limits
Hong Kong Watch lists Chow as currently in jail. The August 2026 维权网 (Rights Defense Network) prisoner roster records him among current political prisoners with a 7-year-9-month sentence. As of the latest available reporting, he remains imprisoned. The “localist” political characterization is attributed to biographical sources, not stated as an editorial label of the publisher; biographical details reported only via Wikipedia (such as faith or party affiliation) are encyclopedic and are not presented here as independently verified facts. Concurrent versus consecutive service of the 5-year-1-month (March 2024) and 7-year-9-month (November 2024) sentences is not established from the sources read; the two sentences are stated without inferring a combined total or release date. The precise current detention facility is not verified. The Hong Kong Watch page’s “Age at Arrest: 23” is not independently corroborated and is not used here. Direct PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Hong Kong government statements on Chow’s individual sentence were not separately opened; the official position (primaries as a National Security Law violation) is reported via AP/NPR and Amnesty coverage. Identity note: this is the Hong Kong localist political figure Owen Chow Ka-shing, not any mainland 邹家成; do not merge him with his Issue 131 band neighbors 许章清 or 盖永光 (separate roster entries — sentence bands group by sentence length only, mixing causes and regions).
Media Profile & Archive: Owen Chow Ka-shing (邹家成) — Media Profile & Archive