The European Union has expressed concern over the “further narrowing” of space for civil society in Hong Kong, citing the city’s Democratic Party’s plan to disband and the suspension of research by an independent pollster.
“We are aware of pressure put on the Democratic Party to disband, while the independent polling institute [the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI)] has suspended research activities,” Anitta Hipper, the lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy of the EU, said on Saturday on Twitter, now known as X.
“Journalists and rights-based civil society organisations are under increasing pressures, including the Hong Kong Journalist[s] Association. The European Union urges the Hong Kong authorities to protect the ability of the people of Hong Kong to exercise their rights.”
In an emailed reply to HKFP on Monday, a Hong Kong government spokesperson said residents’ rights and freedoms were protected under the law, citing human rights safeguards provided in the city’s mini-constitution the Basic Law and national security legislation.
“Foreign governments and organisations should not interfere in any form in the internal affairs” of Hong Kong, the spokesperson said.
Hipper’s comments came after the Democratic Party, once Hong Kong’s largest opposition party in the legislature, announced last week it would take steps to disband. A special task force will study the process for disbandment, party chair Lo Kin-hei said, but that decision still needed to go through a vote by the party’s approximately 400 members.
Explainer: Hong Kong’s Democratic Party through the years – from its founding to looming end
Veteran party member Fred Li told a radio programme last week that an unnamed contact in the Chinese Communist Party had suggested the Democratic Party ought disband ahead of the upcoming Legislative Council (LegCo) elections in December.
Earlier this month, HKPORI – a research institute that conducts regular polling on the ratings of government officials – announced it would suspend all self-funded research and may “close down,” weeks after CEO Robert Chung was investigated by national security police on suspicion of assisting a wanted fugitive.
Explainer: What is PORI and why was it raided by national security police?
The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) last week said its venue booking for its annual fundraising gala was cancelled by a hotel without an explanation, after another hotel had earlier axed the press union’s booking for what it said was an “unstable power supply” caused by a water leak.
Isabelle Rome, ambassador for human rights of France, also expressed concern on Saturday over the Democratic Party’s decision to begin disbandment.
“Dismayed to see that the space for civil society and checks and balances in #HongKong continues to shrink, with allegations of political pressures on the Democratic Party to disband,” Rome posted on X.
Since Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020, dozens of political and civil society groups have dissolved. The pro-democracy Civic Party, then the city’s second-largest opposition party in the LegCo, officially folded in March 2024.
The Democratic Party – founded in 1994 – is seen as a moderate liberal party with less radical views than its localist counterparts. But the party no longer has any seats in LegCo or the city’s district councils following an electoral overhaul that ensures only “patriots” can rule.
Multiple members of the party have been jailed or detained over national security offences, including Helena Wong and Lam Cheuk-ting, as well as former chairs Wu Chi-wai and Albert Ho.
