Pan-democrat lawmakers have decided to form a new body to communicate with Beijing following an internal meeting on Friday.
The Beijing Liaison Group will be a platform for the pro-democracy camp to exchange news and discuss issues relating to the mainland government’s role in Hong Kong.
Civic Party lawmaker Dennis Kwok Wing-hang will be the convenor. Other core members include Democratic Party chair Emily Lau Wai-hing, the Labour Party’s Cyd Ho Sau-lan and education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen.
All pan-democrat lawmakers except Gary Fan Kwok-wai of Neo Democrats have joined the new group.
Kwok said that the platform does not “bind all pan-democrats to make decisions together”.
“We respect every lawmaker – they can make their own decisions as to whether to communicate with Beijing,” he added.
Ho said that she hoped lawmakers would respect the agreement and notify the group before communicating with Beijing.
In August, key members of the Democratic Party met with a top Beijing official in charge of Hong Kong affairs – a move that has triggered a backlash within the party. The party’s own central committee and other pan-democrat lawmakers were only informed of the meeting after it had taken place.
