In open letter, ex-Civic Party members charged under Hong Kong’s national security law call for group to disband

The group says they are concerned for their ex-colleagues’ safety, pointing to a chain of developments that began last year

‘The political reality is written on the wall: the Civic Party has already completed its historical mission,’ the letter reads

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(Left to right) Civic Party chairman Alan Leong and jailed former members Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki and Jeremy Tam. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 7:10pm, 15 Apr 2021Updated: 11:30pm, 15 Apr 2021

Four former members of the opposition Civic Party facing charges under the Beijing-imposed national security law have made an emotional appeal for the group to disband, arguing the move will help protect their one-time colleagues in Hong Kong’s new political environment.

In calling for the dissolution of the party, the four – ex-lawmakers Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu, Jeremy Tam Man-ho and Kwok Ka-ki, and district councillor Lee Yue-shun – said a chain of events that began last year had repeatedly proved that the party had no future in the city’s politics.

“Four of our six hopefuls were banned from running in the Legislative Council elections last September, while three of the four lawmakers unseated [by the authorities] in November belonged to the Civic Party,” reads the open letter, which was addressed to their former colleagues and published on Thursday.

“Together with the [unsuccessful] bail application results of Tam and Kwok, along with the attitude of the court and prosecutors towards them, all this suggests that there is no more room for the Civic Party in the legislature, and very soon our colleagues in the district councils may face the same fate.

“The political reality is written on the wall: the Civic Party has already completed its historical mission.”

Former Civic Party member Lee Yue-shun, who joined three fellow ex-members charged under the national security law in calling for the party to disband. Photo: Dickson Lee

The four were among the 47 opposition activists and politicians charged with subversion in February over their roles in an unofficial primary run-off to select candidates for last year’s Legco elections. The elections were subsequently postponed by at least a year, and authorities have since described the primary as part of a plot to paralyse the government.