No alternative but to disband Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, leader says

Hong Kong’s Democratic Party chairperson Lo Kin-hei has said that there is no alternative but to dissolve the opposition party.

Appearing on a talk show hosted by former Democratic Party chairperson Emily Lau on Tuesday, Lo said that the party had originally hoped to continue its work after it elected its central committee in December.

At the time, the combination of factors it had to consider in determining whether to continue was still “stable,” he added. “But some situations came up, and we could all see that the balance had shifted, and we were forced to make this choice.”

Lo also said that he would neither leave Hong Kong nor run for a seat in the city’s legislature as an independent candidate after the party’s dissolution.

The 90-seat Legislative Council (LegCo) will complete its current four-year term at the end of this year. In March 2021, Beijing passed legislation to ensure only “patriots” govern Hong Kong, in a move that wiped out opposition in the LegCo.

Under pressure

On April 13, the party passed a motion bringing it closer to disbandment after reports that Chinese officials had warned several senior members to dissolve the party before the upcoming legislative elections.

The motion, introduced after the party initiated disbandment procedures in February, allowed the party’s central committee to proceed with its dissolution.

Lo said at the April press conference that the final motion to disband would likely be approved by party members in an upcoming general meeting, considering their “understanding of the situation faced by the party and the central committee.”

The Democratic Party was once the largest opposition party in the city’s legislature, commanding as many as 13 seats in the then 60-strong legislature in 1998.

Lo said on Tuesday that he recognised the party’s influence had waned, adding that it would not drag out the dissolution procedure. “What you do under this environment doesn’t seem to actually affect much,” he said.

The party was looking to donate its assets to organisations not involved in politics, such as green groups, he added.

Lo, whose acquittal in a 2019 unauthorised assembly case was upheld by the Court of Appeal last month, said that the Department of Justice had no intention of overturning the decision.

The opposition party was also the focus of a Tuesday Ming Pao opinion piece written by Terry Yip, deputy secretary-general of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB).

Yip alleged that the Democratic Party turned its back on its ideals of nonviolent protest during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and even took part in the “black-clad violence” of 2019.

In response to Yip, Lo said that he did not understand why other political parties were concerned about his party’s affairs.