Core member of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party resigns from duties after joint petition from colleagues against his criticism of restaurants barring mainland Chinese

Richard Tsoi comes under fire from 64 colleagues but stands his ground, pointing out that people from other countries with infections are still served

Party condemns government over what it sees as incompetence in handling of health crisis, and says it supports ‘self-protection’ measures of businesses

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Richard Tsoi says while he has resigned from party duties with regret, he will not change his stance on the matter. Photo: David Wong

Published: 8:00am, 15 Mar 2020Updated: 8:00am, 15 Mar 2020

A core member of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy party has stepped down from his duties after 64 colleagues jointly criticised him for accusing local restaurants of being discriminatory towards Mandarin speakers amid the coronavirus epidemic.

Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong, a long-time Democratic Party central committee member, said on March 5 in his capacity as a community organiser of a non-profit organisation that the Equal Opportunities Commission should investigate 101 restaurants.

His remarks, representing the stance of the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO) prompted 64 party members, including lawmakers and district councillors, to sign a petition calling on him to resign from all duties. They said his public comments were “a major contradiction with the Democratic Party’s stance on a full border closure”.

Richard Tsoi (left) holds slogans at the SoCO office in Sham Shui Po decrying discriminatory actions of businesses. Photo: May Tse

The party had criticised Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor for refusing to close all borders with mainland China as Covid-19 gripped the city.

“What the restaurants have done now is a self-help action to protect their customers,” the petition read.

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