Five senior members of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, the territory’s biggest and last remaining major opposition party, said that Chinese officials or intermediaries have warned the party to disband or face serious consequences, including possible arrests.
The Democratic Party, which was founded in 1994 in the years before Hong Kong’s historic return from British to Chinese rule, has over the past few decades been the flagship opposition party that has united the territory’s democratic forces to push Beijing on democratic reforms and to uphold its freedoms.
Amid a years-long national security crackdown by China after pro-democracy protests in 2019, the Democratic Party is to hold an extraordinary general meeting tomorrow to seek members’ views and possibly pave the way for the group’s dissolution.
Photo: Reuters
Party Chairman Lo Kin-hei (羅健熙) has not given a concrete reason for the likely disbandment, but five senior Democratic Party members told Reuters they had been told in meetings with Chinese officials or people linked to Beijing in recent months that the party should close.
Fred Li (李華明), a veteran party member and former lawmaker, said a Chinese official had told him this should be done before the legislative elections in December.
“The meaning is that we should be gone by then,” Li said. “The message was very direct.”
Photo: Reuters
Li declined to identify the person, but said the tone was very different from frequent exchanges he has had with Chinese officials over many years.
There were no immediate responses to requests for comment from the Hong Kong Liaison Office, China’s main representative body in Hong Kong, or from the Hong Kong government.
Four other senior Democratic Party members also said they had been warned in recent months by middlemen linked to Beijing, some of whom said the party would face “serious consequences” if it did not disband. Three declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.
Yeung Sum (楊森), one of the party’s founding members, said Beijing’s move in 2021 to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system to only allow “patriots” to run for public office had effectively marginalized the party by removing it from mainstream politics.
The party now holds no seats in Hong Kong’s legislature.
“We just keep a voice of advocacy for the people of Hong Kong on social and political issues, but still we are under pressure,” said Yeung, who was also approached by a middleman.
Two Asian and two Western diplomats say they are aware of the veiled threats to the Democratic Party.
“For a long time it seemed like Beijing could live with the situation of having the party around as a figment of opposition,” said one Western envoy.
“It seems they are leaving nothing to chance. The message is it is time to close down once and for all,” said the diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS