China warns Hong Kong's last major opposition party to disband, members say

Hong Kong: Five senior members of Hong Kong's Democratic Party, the city's biggest and last remaining major opposition party, say Chinese officials or middlemen have warned the parties to disband or face serious consequences, including possible arrests.

The Democratic Party, which was founded in 1994 in the years before Hong Kong's historic return from British to Chinese rule, has over the past few decades been the flagship opposition party that has united the city's democratic forces to push Beijing on democratic reforms and to uphold the financial hub's freedoms.

Amid a years-long national security crackdown by China after pro-democracy protests in 2019, the Democratic Party will hold an extraordinary general meeting on April 13 to seek members' views and possibly pave the way for the group's dissolution.

The group's chairman, Lo Kin-hei, has not given a concrete reason for the likely disbandment, but five senior Democratic Party members told Reuters they had been told in meetings with Chinese officials or individuals linked to Beijing in recent months that the party should close.

Fred Li, a veteran democratic party member and former lawmaker, said a Chinese official had told him this should be done before this December's legislative elections.

"The meaning is that we should be gone by then," Li told Reuters. "The message was very direct."

Li declined to identify the individual but said the tone was very different from frequent exchanges he has had with Chinese officials over many years.

There were no immediate responses to requests for comment from the Hong Kong Liaison Office, China's main representative body in Hong Kong, or from the Hong Kong government.

Four other senior Democratic Party members also said they had been warned in recent months by middlemen linked to Beijing, some of whom warned the party would face "serious consequences" if it didn't disband. Three declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

Yeung Sum, one of the founding members of the Democratic Party, said Beijing's move in 2021 to overhaul the city's electoral system to only allow "patriots" to run for public office had effectively marginalised the party by removing it from mainstream politics.

The party now holds no seats in Hong Kong's legislature.

"We just keep a voice of advocacy for the people of Hong Kong on social and political issues, but still we are under pressure," Yeung, who was also approached by a middleman, told Reuters.

Two Asian and two Western diplomats say they are aware of the veiled threats to the Democratic Party.

"For a long time it seemed like Beijing could live with the situation of having the party around as a figment of opposition," said one Western envoy.

"It seems they are leaving nothing to chance. The message is it is time to close down once and for all," said the diplomat, who was not authorised to speak publicly.

The envoys see the demise of the Democratic Party as further denting Hong Kong's international reputation amid U.S.-China geopolitical tensions. China's recent criticism of CK Hutchison's port sale to a U.S. consortium has also raised questions about the city’s autonomy, they say.

Founded in 1994 and led by barrister Martin Lee, the democratic Party has played a pivotal role in Hong Kong's transition from British to Chinese rule, shaping the financial hub's democratic development and civil society.

Emily Lau, a former Democratic Party chairwoman, said she was saddened by the likely dissolution, as she had always believed in engagement rather than confrontation with Beijing, including a 2013 meeting with the deputy head of the Liaison Office, Li Gang.

"What we want is to see a safe, just and ultimately free Hong Kong," she said. Lau declined to comment on whether she'd been approached about disbanding.

If the democrats disband, it would mark the end of nearly 30 years of opposition party politics in Hong Kong.

At least five democratic party members are currently in jail or held in custody under the national security law.

China says the security laws have brought stability to Hong Kong and rejects claims by some countries such as the United States that it has been used as a tool of repression against the democrats.

"Hong Kong's international reputation was built on its openness, its freedoms, and its respect for the rule of law," said David Alton, a life peer of Britain's House of Lords and patron of Hong Kong Watch, a rights advocacy group.

"The disbanding of the Democratic Party is another sign that Hong Kong is now being subjected to the same censorship and repression already familiar in mainland China."