Hong Kong pro-establishment coalition to recruit 1,000 members to support coronavirus recovery efforts and counter protesters’ ‘burn with us’ mentality

Conveners Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying say alliance has not been set up to boost the camp’s chances in coming legislative elections

Former city leaders say group will focus on livelihood issues such as helping university graduates to find jobs, and distributing masks in community

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Leung Chun-ying (left) and Tung Chee-hwa are conveners of the Hong Kong Coalition. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 9:34pm, 26 Apr 2020Updated: 11:38pm, 26 Apr 2020

An alliance of pro-establishment heavyweights plans to line up 1,000 prominent figures from across society to support officials in reviving Hong Kong’s coronavirus-hit economy and counter the opposition camp’s “if we burn, you burn with us” mentality, according to two former city leaders.

Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying, conveners of the recently formed Hong Kong Coalition, also made clear on Sunday that the alliance was not set up to boost the pro-establishment camp’s chances in Legislative Council elections in September.

They said the coalition would focus on livelihood issues such as helping university graduates to find jobs, and distributing masks in the community through a network of members.

The pair are now vice-chairmen of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the nation’s top advisory body.

Anti-government protests rocked Hong Kong after breaking out last June. Photo: Nora Tam

Tung, the city’s first postcolonial chief executive from 1997 to 2005, said the coalition’s goal was different from that of the Our Hong Kong Foundation, a think tank he founded and has chaired since 2014.