Overview of liberalism in Hong Kong
Liberalism
has a long tradition as an
economic philosophy
since the
founding of Hong Kong
as an
entrepot
which cherishes
private property
, the
free market
, and
free trade
. In recent decades, Hong Kong has earned its international reputation as one of the "
freest economies in the world
". As a political trend, liberalism has become the driving force of the
democratic movement
since the 1980s which is mainly represented by the
pro-democracy camp
which strives for the
universal suffrage
,
human rights
and
rule of law
in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was established as a free trading port by Britain in 1841 and has been strongly influenced by the
laissez-faire
ideals throughout its history. However as a largely racially segregated and politically closed colony, attempts at liberal reform received little success in the 19th century. Nevertheless, many western-educated Chinese intellectuals based in Hong Kong became the some of most prominent liberal thinkers which pushed for modernisation of China, including
Ho Kai
and revolutionaries such as
Yeung Ku-wan
and
Sun Yat-sen
. A small scale self-government movement derived from
Governor
Mark Aitchison Young
's
proposed constitutional reform
in the early post-war period.
The emergence of the contemporary liberalism took root in the rapid democratisation in the final years of the colonial years in the 1980s and 1990s, which the
pro-democracy camp
was united under the banner of an autonomous Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty. The liberals consolidated their popular support from the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
and received landslide victories in the first direct elections in
1991
and
1995
in the final colonial years. The liberals took the defensive role against the Beijing's authoritarian regime going into the early SAR period which led to the
massive demonstration
against the
Basic Law Article 23
in 2003.
The liberals suffered from internal crises and fragmentation over the approaches on fighting for full democracy and safeguarding Hong Kong's liberal values against Beijing's increasing encroachment on Hong Kong's autonomy, which led to the
rise of localism
in the 2010s. The large-scale
civil disobedience movement
of
Occupy Central
in 2014 and the
historic anti-government protests
in 2019 resulted in Beijing's heavy-handed crackdown and subsequent retaliation, which put the liberal movement into limbo.
Liberal roots in the 19th to early 20th century
[
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]
Laissez-faire liberalism
[
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]
The cession of Hong Kong under the
Treaty of Nanking
in 1842 was overseen by then-
British Foreign Secretary
Lord Palmerston
who demanded a commercial treaty that would put
Sino-British trade relations
on a satisfactory footing or the cession of a small island where the British opium traders could live under their own flag free from threats from the Chinese officials in
Canton
.
[1]
Lord Palmerston was a prime figure of the
Whig Party
, which was the predecessor of the
Liberal Party
. The aims of the
Opium War
was to open up the Chinese market in the name of free trade. As the British
free port
of Hong Kong, taking advantage as the gateway to the vast Chinese market, Hong Kong merchants, the so-called
compradors
, had taken a leading role in investment and trading opportunities by serving as middlemen between the European and indigenous population in China and Hong Kong,
[2]
in the principles of
laissez-faire
classical liberalism
, which has since dominated the economic discourse of Hong Kong.
Sir
John Bowring
, the
Governor of Hong Kong
from 1854 to 1859 and a disciple of liberal philosopher
Jeremy Bentham
for instance was a chief campaigner of free trade at the time. He believed that "Jesus Christ is free trade and free trade is Jesus Christ."
[3]
In 1858, Bowring proudly claimed that "Hong Kong presents another example of elasticity and potency of unrestricted commerce."
[2]
The free market tradition lasted throughout Hong Kong history, and the city was rated the world's freest economy for 25 years, from 1995 to 2020,
[4]
a title bestowed on it by
The Heritage Foundation
, a conservative Washington think tank,
[5]
and was greatly admired by
libertarian
economist
Milton Friedman
.
[6]
[7]
Political liberalism
[
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]
Compared to
economic liberalism
,
political liberalism
remained marginal in Hong Kong and did not gain much political influence. However, as the debate over Chinese modernisation got fiercer by the end of the 20th century, Hong Kong became the home of Chinese reformists and revolutionaries, namely Sir
Ho Kai
, who was inspired by classical liberal thinkers such as
John Locke
,
Montesquieu
,
Adam Smith
,
Jeremy Bentham
and
John Stuart Mill
.
[8]
He was an advocate of
constitutional monarchy
in China and a sympathiser of the revolutionary cause, along with his protege,
Dr. Sun Yat-sen
, who had studied in Hong Kong and had stated that he got the inspiration for his revolutionary and modernist ideas from Hong Kong.
[9]
One of the earliest revolutionary organisations, the
Furen Literary Society
, was set up in Hong Kong by
Yeung Ku-wan
in 1892.
[10]
The society met in
Pak Tsz Lane
, in
Central, Hong Kong
, and released books and papers discussing the future of China and advocating the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of a democratic republic in China, priding themselves on the motto of "full-hearted patriotism" and striving for knowledge, inquiry and public awareness.
[11]
The society was later merged into the
Revive China Society
secretly founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1894.
[12]
There were very few liberal reforms carried out by the colonial government towards the end of the 19th century. For instance, Sir John Bowring proposed that the elections to the
Legislative Council
should be based on property and not racial qualification. He believed that voting rights for the Chinese would "earn their support for the British government", which was strongly opposed by the local European community and the
Colonial Office
.
[13]
Sir
John Pope Hennessy
, the Governor of Hong Kong from 1877 to 1893, was a liberal-minded governor who attempted to tackle the problem of
racial segregation
in the colony, but had received stiff resistance within the colonial establishment for his radical agenda.
[14]
Hennessy also proposed to abolish
flogging
as a form of punishment, which received widespread opposition from the European community, who even held a public protest meeting against his proposal.
[15]
There were sporadic voices for political liberalisation in Hong Kong during the late 19th and early 20th century. One of the examples was the
Constitutional Reform Association of Hong Kong
, which was formed by the expatriate British business community in 1917. Headed by
Henry Pollock
and
P. H. Holyoak
, it submitted a proposal of introducing unofficial majority within the Legislative Council to the
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
, represented by member of parliament Colonel
John Ward
, but the proposal was ultimately rejected by the Colonial Office.
[16]
Failing to obtain any meaningful success for their proposals, the Constitutional Reform Association ceased to exist by October 1923.
[17]
Post-war liberal trends
[
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]
Young Plan
[
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]
The liberal movement experienced a resurgence following the return of British rule in 1945, after a three-year long
Japanese occupation of Hong Kong
. Governor
Mark Aitchison Young
announced the plan for constitutional changes on the day of the return of the civil government in 1946, as "an appropriate and acceptable means of affording to all communities in Hong Kong an opportunity of more active political participation, through their responsible representatives, in the administration of the Territory."
[18]
It proposed to set up a municipal council which would give Hong Kong a limited degree of representative government.
[19]
The Young Plan generated debates in the local community. Several political groups were set up to participate in the debate over political liberalisation, such as the
Reform Club of Hong Kong
, consisting mainly of the expatriate community, and the
Hong Kong Chinese Reform Association
, consisting of mostly Chinese members in 1949.
[20]
However due to the
Communist takeover of China
and the outbreak of the
Korean War
, Governor
Alexander Grantham
was less enthusiastic about the constitutional reform which eventually led to it being shelved in 1952.
[21]
Two of the elected seats in the
Urban Council
were recreated in the
1952 election
and were gradually increased as the membership of the Urban Council was expanded. The Reform Club, along with the
Hong Kong Civic Association
set up in 1954, participated in the Urban Council elections before the 1980s and were seen as the closest to
opposition parties
in Hong Kong during the post-war colonial period.
[22]
Self-government movement
[
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]
The call for political liberalisation and
self-government
continued in the 1950s and 1960s. The
United Nations Association of Hong Kong
(UNAHK), formed by
Ma Man-fai
in 1953, demanded sovereignty in Hong Kong. In a proposal drafted in 1961, the association laid out a plan for an ultimately fully direct election for the Legislative Council, which in that period was appointed by the governor. The Reform Club and the Civic Association also formed a coalition in 1960 and sent a delegate to London to demand fully direct elections to the Legislative Council and universal suffrage, but failed to negotiate any meaningful reforms.
[23]
The self-proclaimed "
anti-communist
" and "
anti-colonial
"
Democratic Self-Government Party of Hong Kong
was set up in 1963, calling for a fully independent government in which the Chief Minister would be elected by all Hong Kong residents, while the British government would only preserve its power over diplomacy and military.
[24]
There were also the
Hong Kong Socialist Democratic Party
and the
Labour Party of Hong Kong
, which took a more left-leaning and democratic socialist approach to Hong Kong's independence and decolonization.
[25]
[26]
In 1966, Urban Councillor
Elsie Elliott
, who was also member of the UNAHK, visited London and met with British government officials and Members of Parliament, asking for constitutional reform towards sovereignty, a reform of the judiciary towards impartiality and equal representation, and comprehensive anti-corruption investigations of the colonial nomenklatura and legal authorities.
[27]
[28]
After once again failing to obtain any successful concessions, all the parties advocating for the self-government in Hong Kong ceased to exist by the mid-1970s.
[24]
Positive non-interventionism
[
edit
]
Economic liberalism and free-market capitalism remained the dominant economic philosophy in Hong Kong throughout its history. In 1971,
Financial Secretary
John Cowperthwaite
coined the term "positive non-interventionism", which stated that the economy was doing well in the absence of
government intervention
and excessive
regulation
, but it was important to create the regulatory and physical infrastructure to facilitate market-based decision making. This policy was continued by subsequent Financial Secretaries, including Sir
Philip Haddon-Cave
, who said that "positive non-interventionism involves taking the view that it is usually futile and damaging to the growth rate of an economy, particularly an open economy, for the Government to attempt to plan the allocation of resources available to the private sector and to frustrate the operation of market forces", although he stated that the description of Hong Kong as a laissez-faire society was "frequent but inadequate".
The economic philosophy was highly praised by economist
Milton Friedman
, who wrote in 1990 that the Hong Kong economy was perhaps the best example of a
free market economy
.
[7]
Right before he died in 2006, Friedman wrote the article "Hong Kong Wrong ? What would Cowperthwaite say?" in the
Wall Street Journal
, criticizing
Donald Tsang
, then
Chief Executive of Hong Kong
who had the slogan of "big market, small government," where small government is defined as less than 20 per cent of the GDP, for abandoning the doctrine of "positive non-interventionism."
[29]
1970s student movements
[
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]
The 1970s in Hong Kong were the prime years of liberal student movements. Although the student unions were all dominated by the
Chinese nationalists
which were largely inspired by the
Cultural Revolution
and
personality cult of Mao Zedong
in Mainland China at the time, a liberal cabinet led by
Mak Hoi-wah
and assisted by
Albert Ho
won the 1974 election of the
Hong Kong University Students' Union
(HKUSU). The liberals held slightly Chinese nationalist sentiments but strongly opposed the blind-eyed pro-Communist nationalist discourse and stressed caring for the Hong Kong society and its citizens. Many of them also opposed colonial rule. They participated in social movements, such as the Chinese Language Movement, the anti-corruption movement, the
Baodiao movement
and so on, in which many of the student leaders became the main leaders of the
pro-democracy movement
at the turn of the 21st century.
Waves of liberalisation in the 1980s and 1990s
[
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]
Sino-British agreement and drafting of the Basic Law
[
edit
]
In the late 1970s, the
Chinese economic reform
launched by paramount leader of the Chinese Communist government
Deng Xiaoping
and the approaching of the question over the Hong Kong's sovereignty after 1997 opened the opportunity for the emergence of the contemporary liberalism in Hong Kong. In the late 1970s
Governor
Murray MacLehose
carried out massive social reforms and also expanded the local representation of the colonial government and the district administration, which saw the establishment of the elected local advisory institutes
District Boards
and the territory-wide franchise of the
Urban Council
.
[30]
While the Beijing authorities insisted China shall resume its sovereignty over Hong Kong after 1997,
British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
insisted that the legality of the Treaty of Nanking must be upheld. Some Hong Kong liberal intellectuals saw it as an opportunity to change the colonial status quo to a democratic and fairer society. This view was held by
Tsang Shu-ki
, a prominent thinker in the social activist circle at the time. In January 1983, the liberals forming the
Meeting Point
favoured Chinese rule with the slogan of the new
Three Principles of People
, "Nation, Democracy and People's Livelihood." It became one of the earliest groups in Hong Kong that favoured Chinese sovereignty, but they also wanted a free, democratic and autonomous Hong Kong.
[31]
The
Sino-British Joint Declaration
of 1984 guaranteed Hong Kong would retain a high degree of autonomy under Chinese rule with the preservation of the maintained Western lifestyle in Hong Kong.
[32]
Deng Xiaoping also emphasised the principle of "Hong Kong's people ruling Hong Kong." Starting from 1984, the colonial government began the process of
decolonisation
by gradually introducing
representative democracy
into Hong Kong. The reform proposals were first carried out in the
Green Paper: the Further Development of Representative Government
in July 1984 which allowed 24 seats in the Legislative Council to be
indirectly elected by electoral college
in 1985.
[33]
During the period, many liberal political groups were formed to contest the electoral politics in different levels. By the late 1980s, the Meeting Point led by
Yeung Sum
, the
Hong Kong Affairs Society
led by
Albert Ho
formed in 1985, and the
Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood
(HKADPL) led by
Frederick Fung
became the three major liberal political forces active in elections. The liberals also formed the
Joint Committee on the Promotion of Democratic Government
(JCPDG) to demand a faster pace of democratisation and to introduce direct elections in the
1988 Legislative Council
.
[34]
It was led by the two most prominent liberal icons,
Martin Lee
and
Szeto Wah
, who were elected to the Legislative Council and were also appointed by Beijing into the
Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee
(BLDC), to draft the provisional constitution of the Hong Kong government after 1997.
To counter the liberal emergence, the business elites formed a
conservative coalition
with the pro-Communist
Beijing loyalists
, which warned of the rise of populism and disruption to the prosperity and stability if democratisation was to implement too quick.
[35]
In the BLDC, the liberal faction, the
Group of 190
also faced the conservative
Group of 89
, who favoured a less democratic system after 1997. Hong Kong became increasingly politicised in the latter half of the 1980s with two rival blocs debating on the pace of democratisation as well as various political and social issues.
Tiananmen protest and the liberal zenith
[
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]
The liberals supported the democratic cause of the
Tiananmen protests of 1989
and formed the
Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China
(HKASPDMC) to provide material supports to the student protesters in Beijing. Several solidarity demonstrations in May 1989 also attended by up to a million Hong Kong residents. The star-dubbed
Concert for Democracy in China
also raised more than over HK$12 million for the students in Beijing.
[36]
[37]
The bloody crackdown on the protest on 4 June 1989 shocked the general public in Hong Kong and triggered a crisis of confidence in Hong Kong's future under Chinese rule, leading to the massive emigration waves on eve of the
handover of Hong Kong
.
[38]
Prominent liberal leaders Martin Lee and Szeto Wah resigned from the BLDC as an act of protest against the Beijing government after the massacre and the warm relationship between Beijing and pro-democrats have broken off since. The democrats have held the
annual Tiananmen vigils
every year and called for the end of
one-party rule
in China which was seen as "treason" and "subversive" by the Beijing authorities. The widespread fear of the Communist regime and the support for democracy also consolidated the popular foundation of the pro-democracy camp. In the
first Legislative Council direct election
in 1991, the liberals united under the banner of the
United Democrats of Hong Kong
(UDHK) which became the first major political party in Hong Kong's history. The UDHK and Meeting Point alliance and other pro-democratic independents including
Emily Lau
swept the votes by winning 16 of the 18 direct elected seats. To counter the liberal rise in the legislature, the conservative business elites formed the
Liberal Party
in 1993 which positioned itself as the defender of
economically liberal values
such as free market and free enterprise but took
political conservative positions
against democratisation.
The arrival of the last governor
Chris Patten
, the former chairman of the
British Conservative Party
, also brought a paradigm shift on Hong Kong politics. Despite Beijing's strong opposition, he put forward the progressive
constitutional reform proposals
to enfranchise 2.7 million new voters and lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
[39]
Safeguarded by the liberal majority, the Patten proposals were passed in the Legislative Council after unprecedented political wrangling despite the Beijing's attempt to defeat the bill by allying the business elites. In the
substantially more democratic elections
in 1995, the
Democratic Party
, formed out of the merger of the United Democrats and the Meeting Point movement received another landslide victory, winning half of the Legislative Council seats. Many liberal pieces of legislation were able to pass in the final years of colonial rule, such as decriminalising same-sex acts, abolishing death penalty and the
Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance
. Given the booming Hong Kong economy, the colonial government also mildly expanded social welfare and public housing. At the time, there were also new liberal parties being set up, such as the radical
The Frontier
, led by Emily Lau, and the
Citizens Party
, led by
Christine Loh
.
In response to the Patten proposals, the Beijing government set up the
Provisional Legislative Council
(PLC) which was seen as unconstitutional by the pro-democrats. The pro-democrats, except for the HKADPL, boycotted the PLC and stepped down as legislators during the last days of colonial rule. The pro-democrats ran again in the
first legislative elections
of the SAR period. Although the pro-democrats continuously received about 55 to 60 per cent of the popular vote in every election held since 1997, their influence was contained and hampered by the indirectly elected trade-based
functional constituencies
.
Democratic stagnation in the early handover period
[
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]
Basic Law Article 23 and 2003 pro-democracy wave
[
edit
]
Being excluded from the government by the unique design of the electoral system and composition of the
Legislative Council
, the liberals took a defensive role of safeguarding Hong Kong's civil liberties, human rights, rule of law and autonomy from Beijing interference while striving for the
universal suffrage
of the
Chief Executive
and the Legislative Council as stipulated in
Hong Kong Basic Law Article 45
and Article 68.
[40]
The pro-democrats launched a civil nomination to nominate
Szeto Wah
to run in a mock
first SAR Chief Executive election
, while some activists launched a protest on the establishment day of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) on 1 July to call for the implementation of universal suffrage and the abolishing of the functional constituencies.
The Democratic Party, the flagship liberal party of Hong Kong, suffered from the intra-party factional struggles in the first SAR years where the more radical pro-grassroots "Young Turks" split from the party after
failing to challenge the moderate party leadership
. They formed the
Social Democratic Forum
which held a more
social democratic
and pro-working-class stance and later joined
Emily Lau
's The Frontier.
Between 2002 and 2003 when Hong Kong was still suffering from the
Asian financial crisis
and the
SARS epidemic
, the
Tung Chee-hwa
administration proposed the
national security legislation
enforcing the
Basic Law Article 23
sparked the fear among the liberals who deemed the bill a potential threat to Hong Kong people's
civil liberties
. On 1 July 2003, an estimated 350,000 to 700,000 people marched to the street against the unpopular Tung administration which eventually brought down the legislation. The massive demonstration reenergised the pro-democracy movement, which saw a wave of new activists participating in social activism and electoral politics which led to the formation of the middle-class and professional oriented
Civic Party
and the social democratic
League of Social Democrats
(LSD) in 2006.
The liberal movement lost its momentum after the 2004 decision of the
National People's Congress Standing Committee
(NPCSC) ruled out the universal suffrage for the Chief Executive and Legislative Council in 2007 and 2008.
[40]
The liberals successfully entered the
2007 Chief Executive election
for the first time when
Alan Leong
of the Civic Party secured nomination from the 800-member
Election Committee
strictly controlled by Beijing. Alan Leong ultimately lost to incumbent Chief Executive
Donald Tsang
, receiving only 15 per cent of the electoral votes. In December 2007, the NPCSC once again ruled out universal suffrage in 2012 but stated that the
2017 Chief Executive election
may be held with universal suffrage.
[41]
Liberal disarray and Umbrella Revolution
[
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]
In 2009, the radical
League of Social Democrats
(LSD) proposed a "
Five Constituencies Referendum
" campaign by triggering a
city-wide by-election
to pressure the government to implement the universal suffrage in 2012. The proposal was welcomed by the
Civic Party
by rejected by the
Democratic Party
, which caused a great disunity among the liberal movement. Instead, the Democratic Party and the moderate
Alliance for Universal Suffrage
sought to engage in peaceful negotiations with Beijing, and officially split from the Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats. After a secret meeting with the Beijing authorities at the
Liaison Office
, the central government accepted the Democratic Party's modified proposals to allow ten new seats to be directly elected.
[42]
The negotiation was seen as an "act of betrayal" by the radicals which led to emergence of the
People Power
running against the Democratic Party in the
2011 District Council election
.
Dissatisfied with the traditional liberals' little success in resisting Beijing's growing economic and political influence over Hong Kong, a young generation of
localist activists
who focused on preserving Hong Kong's heritage and identity with some opposing the influx of mainland Chinese culture, ideologies, tourists and immigrants, often with more confrontational methods, gradually grew in strength in the 2010s. In 2012, the introduction of the
Moral and National Education
which was seen as imposing pro-authoritarian and anti-liberal views triggered a massive student protests led by secondary school student
Joshua Wong
and other student activists from
Scholarism
which eventually forced the government to withdraw the scheme. On the other hand, the increasing tensions between the locals and the influx of the mainland Chinese tourists also led to social issues such as
Dolce & Gabbana controversy
, the
Kong Qingdong incident
,
birth tourism
and
parallel trading controversies
which led to several local protests. Some localists' militant and
nativist
tendencies often created tensions with the
cultural liberals
and resulted in further fragmentation within the pro-democracy camp.
In 2013, legal scholar
Benny Tai
proposed an act of non-violent
civil disobedience
to put pressure on the government if its universal suffrage proposals proved to not to meet the "international standards", which led to the
Occupy Central with Love and Peace
(OCLP) campaign.
[43]
[44]
[45]
After the
National People's Congress Standing Committee
(NPCSC)
on 31 August 2014 announced the framework
of the
constitutional reform proposal
in which Chief Executive candidates would be pre-screened before being elected by the Hong Kong public, the students activists led by Scholarism and
Hong Kong Federation of Students
(HKFS) launched a
coordinated class boycott
which turned into a breaching into the
Central Government Complex
.
[46]
[47]
The confrontations between the protesters and police eventually escalated to the 79-day massive sit-in in various locations in Hong Kong known as the "Umbrella Revolution" due to the protesters' use of umbrellas as a tool for defence from the police's assaults.
[48]
Although the Occupy protests ended without any political concessions from the government, it precipitated a generation of galvanised youth and awakening of Hong Kong people's civic consciousness.
[49]
After the failure of the protests, the call for
Hong Kong independence
grew rapidly among the young localist movement. In the
2016 New Territories East by-election
,
Edward Leung
of the pro-independence
Hong Kong Indigenous
received more than 15 percent of the popular vote despite being defeated by Civic Party's
Alvin Yeung
. the government unprecedentedly barred many localists including Edward Leung from running in the
2016 Legislative Council election
, localist candidates under different banners of Hong Kong's "national
self-determination
" and "democratic self-determination" received 19 per cent of vote in total with six of them being elected, including Occupy protest leader
Nathan Law
of the
Demosist?
becoming the youngest legislator in history at the age of 23.
[50]
However over the
oath-taking manners
by some localist legislators-elect, the NPCSC unprecedentedly interpreted the Basic Law which led to the disqualification of six liberal and localist legislators including Nathan Law.
[51]
Liberals under the national security law
[
edit
]
The liberal movement went through a slump after the failure of the
Occupy protests
and government's retaliation on the protest leaders, putting
Benny Tai
,
Joshua Wong
and
Nathan Law
in jail
until in 2019, when the
Carrie Lam
administration proposed
an amendment to the extradition law
which would allow transfers of fugitives to mainland China. The liberals feared it would open itself up to the long arm of mainland Chinese law, putting people from Hong Kong at risk of falling victim to China's closed legal system.
[52]
The anti-extradition movement grew into
massive anti-government protests
which attracted more than a million demonstrators into the streets and direct confrontations between the protesters and police.
[53]
[54]
[55]
As the protests progressed, activists laid out five key demands including the introduction of universal suffrage.
[56]
Some protesters also called for Hong Kong's full independence from China. The
storming of the Legislative Council Complex
after the
annual July 1 march
led to the spillovers of the protests all over the city, as the government refused to fully withdraw the extradition bill. The police's inaction when a group of alleged
triad
members
indiscriminately attacked commuters in Yuen Long
on 21 July also resulted in the widespread distrust between the police and the public.
[57]
The protests escalated into the intense confrontations in the
siege of the Chinese University of Hong Kong
and the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
in mid November. The
24 November District Council election
, which was widely seen as a
de facto
referendum on the protest, resulted in the historic landslide victory for the liberals and localists, where the pro-Beijing camp lost nearly four-fifth of its seats.
[58]
[59]
[60]
To curb the protests, the government invoked the
Emergency Regulations Ordinance
to impose a
law to ban wearing face masks in public gatherings
on 4 October.
[61]
As the
Covid-19 pandemic
hit the city in early 2020 and the protests dwindled, the
National People's Congress Standing Committee
(NPCSC) imposed a
national security law
outlawed "secession, foreign interference, terrorism and subversion against the central government" on 1 July.
[62]
The law immediately created a chilling effect in the city as
Demosist?
, which had been involved in lobbying for foreign support, and several
pro-independence
groups disbanded and ceased all operations hours after the passage of the new law, fearing that they would be the targets of the new law.
[63]
Pro-independence activist
Tony Chung
became the first political figure to be arrested on suspicion of violating the national security law on 29 July.
[64]
On 10 August, the police
raided the offices
of
Next Digital
, the parent company of prominent local liberal newspaper
Apple Daily
and arrested its founder and outspoken activist
Jimmy Lai
and his two sons on the suspicion of violating the national security law.
[65]
In July, the pro-democrats launched an
inter-party primaries
to maximise the chance for the liberals to win a majority in the
upcoming Legislative Council election
. The government warned that the primaries might violate the national security law as organiser
Benny Tai
and some candidates vowed to seize control of the legislature and vote down key government proposals.
[66]
Four incumbent pro-democracy legislators and many activists
were disqualified from running
in the general election for opposing or violating the national security law before Carrie Lam unprecedentedly invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to postpone the election citing the Covid-19 pandemic.
[67]
In November, the NPCSC passed another resolution to disqualify the four incumbent pro-democracy legislators who were barred from running earlier which led to the
mass resignations of all pro-democracy legislators
, which left the legislature without any virtual opposition for the first time since 1998.
[68]
In January 2021, all 55 candidates and organisers in the pro-democracy primaries
were arrested under the national security law
.
[69]
List of liberal parties
[
edit
]
Meeting Point
[
edit
]
Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood
[
edit
]
Hong Kong Democratic Foundation
[
edit
]
United Democrats to Democratic Party
[
edit
]
- 1990: The liberals united in the
United Democrats of Hong Kong
- 1994: The Meeting Point merged into the ⇒
Democratic Party
- 2000: The left-wing faction left and formed the ⇒
Social Democratic Forum
- 2008: The
Frontier
merged into the ⇒
Democratic Party
- 2010: The young Turks left and formed the ⇒
Neo Democrats
- 2015: The moderate faction left and formed the ⇒
Third Side
Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions
[
edit
]
Democratic Alliance
[
edit
]
The Frontier
[
edit
]
- 1996: The
United Ants
formed the
Frontier
- 2003:
Cyd Ho
of the group formed the ⇒
Civic Act-up
- 2006: The social democratic faction left and formed the ⇒
League of Social Democrats
- 2008: The party merged into the ⇒
Democratic Party
- 2010: The radical faction re-registered the
party
- 2011: The party formed alliance with the ⇒
People Power
- 2016: The party broke away from the People Power
Citizens Party
[
edit
]
Article 23 Concern Group to Civic Party
[
edit
]
Civic Act-up
[
edit
]
- 2003: Cyd Ho formed the
Civic Act-up
- 2012: The group formed the ⇒
Labour Party
League of Social Democrats
[
edit
]
- 2006: Formation of the
League of Social Democrats
- 2011: Members of the party left and formed the ⇒
People Power
Neo Democrats
[
edit
]
- 2010: Formation of the
Neo Democrats
- 2021: The party was dissolved
People Power
[
edit
]
Labour Party
[
edit
]
- 2012: Formation of the
Labour Party
Demosist?
[
edit
]
- 2016: Formation of
Demosist?
- 2020: The party was dissolved
Liberal figures and organisations
[
edit
]
Politicians and office holders
Intellectuals, writers and activists
|
Think-tanks
Magazines and media
Media personalities, radio hosts, and bloggers
Organisations
Religious leaders active in liberal politics
Jurists
|
See also
[
edit
]
Other ideologies in Hong Kong
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
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Scott, Ian.
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. University of Hawaii Press. p. 210.
- ^
Tucker, Nancy Bernkopf (2001).
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.
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The Hong Kong Government (1984).
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Beja, Jean-Philippe (2011).
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- ^
Loh, Christine (2010).
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- ^
Kerns, Ann (1 October 2010).
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.
- ^
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.
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. Retrieved
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- ^
Chan, Ming K. (1997).
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- ^
Loh, Christine (2010).
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Fong, Brian C. H.
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Decision Of The Standing Committee Of The National People's Congress On Issues Relating To The Methods For Selecting The Chief Executive Of The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region And For Forming The Legislative Council Of The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region In The Year 2012 And On Issues Relating To Universal Suffrage (Adopted By The Standing Committee Of The Tenth National People's Congress At Its Thirty-First Session On 29 December 2007)
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Archived
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Wayback Machine
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"Reform on agenda as alliance readies for talks with Beijing"
.
The Standard
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on 29 June 2011.
- ^
"公民抗命的最大殺傷力武器"
.
Hong Kong Economic Journal
. Archived from
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on 1 April 2020
. Retrieved
27 March
2013
.
- ^
"OCLP Manifesto"
. Archived from
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on 30 September 2014
. Retrieved
14 October
2014
.
- ^
"Occupy Central is action based on risky thinking"
. The Standard. Archived from
the original
on 12 September 2014.
- ^
"Full text of NPC decision on universal suffrage for HKSAR chief selection"
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on 28 April 2015
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
"學民思潮發動926中學生罷課一天"
. RTHK. 13 September 2014. Archived from
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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.
- ^
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.
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- ^
Chernin, Kelly (18 June 2019).
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Gunia, Amy; Leung, Hillary (10 June 2019).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Qin, Amy (8 July 2019).
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.
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.
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"Junius Ho accused of supporting Yuen Long mob"
.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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"Former convener of Studentlocalism, Tony Chung arrested for violation of National Security Law"
.
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. 29 July 2020.
- ^
"Over 100 police officers raid office of Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily"
.
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. 10 August 2020.
- ^
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.
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.
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
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Electoral reforms
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Proposed reforms
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Related laws & documents
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NPCSC
decisions
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Related topics
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Ideas
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Schools
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By region
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Philosophers
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Politicians
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Organisations
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