The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will not have to be registered after July 1, post-handover executive councillor Nellie Fong Wong Kut-man says.
'There are so many foreign people living in Hong Kong who are members of their own countries' political parties, we cannot ask all of them either to register or to make their memberships open,' she said yesterday.
'The case is the same for the CCP. We need not require all Chinese people living and doing business in Hong Kong to do so.' Mrs Fong was commenting on former Xinhua (the New China News Agency) director Xu Jiatun's statement that the party would become illegal if it refused to register.
'I do not think they need to register if they do not organise rallies or activities,' Mrs Fong said.
The party would operate only on the mainland, not in the territory and had no intention of setting up an office in Hong Kong after July 1.
But she declined to comment on whether she was a party member.