Opinion | Defying Beijing set Hong Kong’s Civic Party on road to political irrelevance

The party had admirable aims, and many of its leaders were good people

Even so, it slipped into the posture of attempting to defy Beijing, and the inability to live with the reality of Chinese sovereignty meant its time was up

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Alan Leong Kah-kit, chair of the Civic Party, speaks following the party’s disbandment in their office in North Point on May 27. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 6:15am, 5 Jun 2023

I must admit I felt a twinge of regret when I read the news that the Civic Party had folded. Chairman and co-founder Alan Leong Kah-kit made the announcement after the remaining members voted almost unanimously at an extraordinary general meeting to start winding up proceedings as no one was prepared to hold office in the 17-year-old organisation.

I immediately recalled the party’s invitation to me to participate in a debate on the motion “The Civic Party is history” held some years ago. I was to propose the motion, Leong would oppose it, and the audience comprised mostly of members would vote on the merits of the arguments presented. The moderator was a prominent local journalist.

I was happy to accept the invitation for a number of reasons: I knew many of the party leaders personally and I particularly liked that they were prepared to open themselves up to outside criticism; the party’s working language was English, which would remove any awkwardness over communication; and it would be a pleasure and a challenge to pit my skills against well-educated professionals, many of whom were senior members of the bar and argued complex legal cases for a living.

To say I lost overwhelmingly would be something of an understatement. As I recall, I got a single vote from one of the few non-members present.

The Civic Party at that time was a member of the rainbow-coloured coalition of what might loosely be described as pro-democracy parties. There was something for everyone: Labour for the working people, the Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood for the less well-off, the original Democratic Party for the politically conscious, the League of Social Democrats for the more militant and various splinter groups, each headed by a charismatic figure.

I saw the Civic Party as somewhere in the middle, a bit highbrow with an academic and legal bias, but something of a moderating force. I envisaged it would appeal mainly to middle-of-the-road, middle-class people like its members with a leaning towards democracy but not keen on anything too radical.