Hong Kong’s opposition Democratic Party has officially passed a resolution to disband and enter liquidation after operating in the city for more than three decades.
The vote held on Sunday at the party’s headquarters in Prince Edward, finalised a decision that was first proposed in February. Democratic Party Chair Lo Kin-hei said a total of 121 members took part in Sunday’s vote. 117 voted for the disbandment, no one voted against, and four blank votes were received.
The party had taken into account different considerations, including Hong Kong’s political environment, before reaching the final decision, Lo said.
Lo thanked Hong Kong residents who had “walked alongside” the Democratic Party over the past 30 years. He said the party had sought to be a bridge between the public and the government, and had taken part in – and borne witness to – the development and transformation of the city as its system “underwent one profound change after another.”
“Having journeyed through these three decades, shoulder to shoulder with the people of Hong Kong, it has been our greatest honour,” Lo said.
“With deep regret, we must bring this chapter to a close,” he added.
The party marked its 30th anniversary last year. It counts some of the city’s most well-known opposition figures among its ranks – including its co-founder Martin Lee, nicknamed the “Father of Democracy.”
It was once the largest opposition party in the city’s Legislative Council (LegCo), commanding as many as 13 seats in the then 60-strong legislature in 1998.
See also: Explainer: Hong Kong’s Democratic Party through the years – from its founding to looming end
The party faced questions on Sunday about whether the path to democracy in Hong Kong had “died” and whether a “democratic return to China” – once a motto of the party – had failed.
Former party chair Yeung Sum said he did not think a democratic handover had failed completely. He said One Country, Two Systems had been conducted in a more “open” manner over the past 30 years, with an active civil society in the city and a democratic election system. The disbandment of the Democratic Party indicated “a shift,” and the city has reached a “low point.”
“The disbandment of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong has indicated the regression of Hong Kong – from being a free and liberal society into an authoritarian society,” Yeung said.
As to whether the Democratic Party had made any “wrong moves” over the last three decades, Lo said that each time the party had to exercise “political judgement,” it had done so with all the information available at the time, and the decision reached was the best they could achieve at that moment.
He added the party was not in a position to offer a view on whether it had erred in the past. Such assessments should be left to historians in the future, he said.
On April 13, it passed a motion bringing it closer to disbandment after reports that Chinese officials had warned several senior members to dissolve the party ahead of last weekend’s 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 was unable to state the value of the party’s remaining assets on Sunday, saying the figure would need to be verified by the liquidators. The party decided to donate all of their residual assets to the Association for the Rights of Individual Accident Victims.
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 Legislative Council (LegCo), officially folded in March 2024.
The Democratic Party, seen as a moderate liberal party with less radical views than its localist counterparts, used to have regular meetings with government officials and maintained a significant representation in LegCo.
‘Waning’ influence
Lo said at an April press conference that a final motion to disband was based on an “understanding of the situation faced by the party and the central committee.”
He later said 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. The party counted around 400 people among its members, down from around 1,000 in “around 2008 or 2009,” Lo said in April.
The opposition party was also the focus of a 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), in April.
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.
