Hong Kong opposition abandons plans to form platform for cross-party cooperation amid national security law threats
- The Hong Kong Citizens’ Deliberative Platform had been envisioned as a way to unite the city’s traditional and localist opposition camps
- However, a high-ranking official last week told a local newspaper that the establishment of such a platform could violate the national security law
The formation of the Hong Kong Citizens’ Deliberative Platform had been in the works since June, but on Thursday – the six-month anniversary of the security law’s imposition – 10 core members of the preparatory committee announced that after hours of discussion, they had made the “very difficult decision” to disband amid threats of legal action.
“We came to a very unfortunate conclusion to cease the preparatory work for the deliberative platform and to discontinue the committee today, as our goal of uniting different forces and factions through this proposed platform had become very unlikely,” Super Leung Kwok-ho, a spokesman for the committee, said at a press conference.
The preparatory committee first started its work half a year ago, after a motion proposing the platform was carried in a joint meeting of the 17 opposition-led district councils on June 6. At the meeting, council representatives also unanimously voiced their opposition to the introduction of the national security law, which was went into force nonetheless on June 30.
Leung, also a councillor for the Island district, said the group had aimed at promoting cross-district cooperation on political and livelihood issues, adding that it had been “encouraging” that 27 members of both moderate and localist groups had signed on as members of the preparatory committee.
