The World Briefly

May 30, 2023

Letting Go

Hong Kong

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One of Hong Kong’s largest and most prolific pro-democracy parties disbanded itself this week following China’s harsh crackdown on dissent and the arrest of its members, the BBC reported.

Members of the Civic Party voted to disband the group, a move one of its founders, Albert Lai, described as “a symbol of the end of Hong Kong’s nativistic democracy movement.”

Founded in 2006, the Civic Party was once the second-largest opposition party in Hong Kong’s legislature. It represented the city’s professionals – such as lawyers and accountants – and was considered to be more moderate than the larger Democratic Party, which still exists.

But the party’s downfall began after some of its members were arrested for participating in the 2019-2020 Hong Kong mass protests against Beijing’s increasing control in the semi-autonomous territory.

In 2020, China passed a controversial national security law to curb dissent in the city. That move also resulted in the ousting of four Civic Party lawmakers from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council over allegations of being “unpatriotic.”

This triggered mass resignations from other opposition politicians in protest. The city later overhauled its electoral system to only allow “patriots” to hold public office. This resulted in the party losing dozens of spots on district councils.

The party had announced plans to dissolve last year after failing to create a new executive committee.

Despite the dissolution, Lai said, “the failure does not mean the movement was meaningless.”

This story originally appeared in the May 30, 2023 newsletter, The Meanest of Streets.