His maternal grandfather was famed calligrapher and Kuomintang leader Yu Youren of Shaanxi Province.

[1] Lau is currently the Ralph and Claire Landau Professor of Economics, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

[2] In 2015, Lau suggested that students who stormed the University of Hong Kong council meeting should be imprisoned.

He wrote: "To find a way forward, one must recognise that the current disturbances reflect deep-rooted, but until now largely latent, anger and discontent among lower-income groups in Hong Kong, especially younger people.

The discontent and perceived lack of hope provided the environment for domestic and foreign agitators to succeed.

[5] Later that year, he became a member of the International Advisory Council of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation.