A total of nine ethnic Chinese candidates from five British parties will run for the UK Parliament elections on 12 December.

The Conservative Party has the largest number of candidates of ethnic Chinese origin, including Xingang Wang for Hammersmith, Alan Mak for Havant, Johnny Luk for Hampstead and Kilburn, Alex Yip for Birmingham Edgbaston, and Shengke Zhi for Manchester Withington.

Labour's Sarah Owen is chosen as the parliamentary candidate for Luton North while George Lee is standing in the general election for the Liberal Democrats in Westminster North.

Other parties also selected candidates of ethnic Chinese origin, including Catherine Cui, the Brexit Party candidate for Poplar and Limehouse and Emma Chan, the Green Party candidate for Tottenham.

"There are more and more British Chinese candidates getting involved in British politics. I think it is a very good thing to see because the British Chinese community is seen as hard-working and making sure that they look after their families. They want to see a strong economy. These are the British Chinese values," said Xingang Wang, who has taken part in three UK elections in the past four years. 

In 2015, 11 Chinese candidates stood in the UK parliamentary election which saw Alan Mak became the first person from a Chinese background to be elected to the House of Commons.

Beside local issues, Brexit is the biggest political topic on the campaign trail. The Brexit Party candidate Catherine Cui supports a clean-break from the EU, a so-called hard Brexit.  

Cui, whose campaign posters include ones in Chinese, says people should "vote for real Brexit and vote for democracy. Some people see fear in uncertainty. We see optimism. Britain will thrive." 

By contrast George Lee chose to leave the Conservative Party to join the remain-supporting Liberal Democrats, saying Brexit would damage the economy and suggesting it was discriminatory.

Despite being the third largest ethnic minority group in the UK, it could be said the Chinese community has been under-represented in British politics. 

With just a month spent campaigning, there has been a concerted effort from across the political spectrum to encourage more British-Chinese citizens to register to vote and make their voice heard. 

"We are trying to encourage more people to stand out in the political arena, like becoming an MP because when you starting to have a Chinese face in every single area then they do not separate us so much," said Christine Lee who found the British Chinese Project, a not-for-profit organisation devoted to promote the engagement and understanding between the Chinese community and UK society. 

"At the moment you hear lot of other ethnic minority voices. Have you ever heard of Chinese voice? No, you haven't. Because we are not in the political arena. We are not represented in any way."

Full list of candidates by constituency 

Hammersmith

Alex Horn, Greens

James Keyse, Brexit Party

Andrew Slaughter, Labour

Jessie Venegas, Liberal Democrats

Xingang Wang, Conservative

Havant

Alan Black, Social Democratic Party

John Colman, Green

Paul Gray, Liberal Democrat

Rosamund Knight, Labour

Alan Mak, Conservative

Hampstead and Kilburn

Johnny Luk, Conservatives

James Pointon, Brexit

Matt Sanders, Liberal Democrats

Tulip Siddiq, Labour

David Stansell, Green Party

Brimingham Edgbaston

Preet Kaur Gill, Labour 

Colin Green, Liberal Democrats

Phil Simpson, Green Party

David Wilks, Brexit Party

Alex Yip, Conservative Party

Manchester Withington

Lucy Bannister, Green

John Leech, Liberal Democrats

Jeff Smith, Labour

Stephen Ward, Brexit Party

Shengke Zhi , Conservative

Luton North

Jeet Bains, Conservative

Simon Hall, Green

Linda Jack, Liberal Democrats

Serena Laidley, Women's Equality Party

Sarah Owen, Labour

Muhammad Yasin Rehman, Independent

Sudhir Sharma, Brexit

Westminster North

Karen Buck, Labour

George Lee, Liberal Democrats

Jamie Macfarlane, Conservatives

Cyrus Parvin, Brexit Party

Peter Marshall, Renew

Holly Robinson, Green Party

Poplar and Limehouse

Apsana Begum, Labour

Andrew Cregan, Liberal Democrat

Catherine Cui, The Brexit Party

Andy Erlam, Independent

David Jameson, Green

Sheun Oke, Conservative

Tottenham

Andrew Bence, Social Democratic Party

Emma Chan, Green

David Lammy, Labour

James Newhall, Conservative

Tammy Palmer, Liberal Democrat

Jonathan Silberman, Communist League

Frank Sweeney, Workers Revolutionary Party

Abdul Turay, The Brexit Party