Faced with the prospect of a failure of talks with Beijing on constitutional reform, the Democratic Party is contemplating the future of its relations with the central government.
Informal discussions within the party about whether chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan should step down and assume responsibility have come as Beijing has again asked the party to distance itself from the issue of the Tiananmen Square crackdown if it wants to build better relations.
A party member said Beijing was aware that if the Democrats' demand for concessions in the reform package was not entertained, resulting in the government proposal being vetoed, Beijing might have to face a different party leadership in future, because the current one might resign.
'In some places, the defence minister has to resign when two fighter jets crash, even though they are not flown by the minister himself,' the politician said. 'It is only normal for the chairman to consider stepping down if negotiations fail.'
Since the party's split with the Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats last year over whether to participate in the Legco by-elections, seen as a de facto referendum for universal suffrage, the Democrats have taken the route of negotiating with, rather than confronting, Beijing to push for quicker democratisation.
The party's internal assessment was that Beijing was keen to see a breakthrough in the reform talks, because it realised that Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's government would become a lame-duck administration if his reform package was once again voted down.
The Democrats also believed that, as well as setting an example for Taiwan, Beijing wanted to take a more liberal approach on Hong Kong policy to offset international pressure it was experiencing over the lack of human rights on the mainland.