Opinion | While Starry Lee’s political future looks bright, the DAB faces irrelevance

After eight years, Starry Lee Wai-king is stepping down from the leadership of Hong Kong’s largest political party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB).

Lee, who cited concerns about her workload as the sole Hong Kong member of the country’s top legislative body – the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee – as her reason for not seeking re-election as DAB chairwoman, was the first woman to head the party. She is also Hong Kong’s youngest representative and only its second woman to ascend to China’s apex of power. These are extraordinary achievements, and Lee is only 49 years old.

She had earlier said she would not be contesting the district council elections in December. As a Kowloon City district council member representing the same constituency, To Kwa Wan North, for more than two decades, Lee not only started her phenomenal political career there in 1999, but also survived the greatest electoral setback of the DAB and pro-establishment camp in 2019.

The DAB lost 96 seats under Lee’s watch, going from 117 to just 21, even though Lee held onto her seat, winning against “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung.

Lee was first and foremost a district councillor for To Kwa Wan North. She won as an independent and didn’t join the DAB until after 2003, when the party suffered its first electoral setback due to the political fallout over its support for the Article 23 legislation on national security. As a young professional woman at that time, Lee’s decision to join the DAB during one of the party’s toughest times was shrewd.