On June 7, 2024, the police in Cheung Chau arrested an 85-year-old man surnamed Guo on charges of “fraud”. The man is accused of making false statements and providing false information between 2013 and 2022, concealing personal income and assets to defraud government subsidies and social welfare, including public housing, elderly living allowance, Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, and legal aid. The arrested individual has been granted bail pending further investigation. It is understood that the arrested person is Guo Zhuojian, also known as the “Judicial Review King of Cheung Chau”.
According to records, Guo Zhuojian was found to be living in a small building on the eastern dike of Cheung Chau in 2020, while also being allocated a public housing unit at Oi Lai Estate in Yau Tong by the Housing Department. Subsequently, the Housing Department conducted an investigation and reclaimed the unit in November 2021. Furthermore, Guo’s unit in the eastern dike building was prosecuted by the Buildings Department in 2017 for unauthorized building works, but no demolition has been carried out. When the department attempted a second prosecution but failed to successfully serve the court summons, the case was eventually dropped.
Guo Zhuojian, known as the “Judicial Review King of Cheung Chau,” first applied for judicial review in 2006 when the Transport Department approved a fare increase on the Central to Cheung Chau ferry route. Over the next ten years, Guo initiated over 30 judicial reviews on matters related to public interest. These included issues such as the construction of an incinerator on Shek Kwu Chau and illegal burials causing pollution in Cheung Chau, the licensing dispute of Hong Kong Television Network, the political reform consultation report, the Legislative Council by-election mechanism, the lead-in-water incident in 2015, the demand to revoke ding rights of indigenous villagers in the New Territories, the call for re-tendering for the expansion of the Avenue of Stars, and the opposition to implementing co-location arrangements for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.
In 2022, Guo Zhuojian successfully challenged the government’s decision to abolish the “needle-free paper” practice through a judicial review in the High Court. Following this, Guo was found to owe the government over HK$1.56 million in legal fees for four cases and was declared bankrupt in May 2020 by the Department of Justice. Guo Zhuojian was officially declared bankrupt by the court on July 8 of the same year.