Pro-democracy camp (Hong Kong)

Last updated

Pro-democracy camp
民主派
Convenor Vacant
Founded27 October 1986;38 years ago (1986-10-27)
Ideology
Colours Yellow and green
(customary)
Legislative Council
0 / 90(0%)
District Councils
0 / 470(0%)
Pro-democracy camp
Chinese 民主派
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Mín zhǔ pài
Bopomofo ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄓㄨˇ ㄆㄞˋ
Wade–Giles Min2 chu3 p'ai4
IPA [mǐn ʈʂù pʰâɪ]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Màhn jyú paai
Jyutping Man4 zyu2 paai3
IPA [mɐn˩ tsy˧˥ pʰaj˧]

The pro-democracy camp, also known as the pan-democracy camp, is a political alignment in Hong Kong that supports increased democracy, namely the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council as given by the Basic Law under the "One Country, Two Systems" framework.

The pro-democrats generally embrace liberal values such as rule of law, human rights, civil liberties and social justice, though their economic positions vary. They are often referred to as the "opposition camp" as they have consistently been the minority camp within the Legislative Council, and because of their non-cooperative and sometimes confrontational stance towards the Hong Kong and Chinese central governments. Opposite to the pro-democracy camp is the pro-Beijing camp, whose members are perceived as being supportive of the Beijing and SAR authorities. Since the 1997 handover, the pro-democracy camp has usually received 55 to 60 percent of the votes in each election, but has always received less than half of the seats in the Legislative Council due to the indirectly elected elements of the legislature.

The pro-democracy activists emerged from the youth movements in the 1970s and began to take part in electoral politics as the colonial government introduced representative democracy in the mid 1980s. The pro-democrats joined hands in pushing for greater democracy both in the transition period and after handover of Hong Kong in 1997. Many also supported greater democracy in China and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The relationship between the pro-democrats and the Beijing government turned hostile after Beijing's bloody crackdown on the protest, after which the pro-democrats were labelled as "treasonous". After the 2004 Legislative Council election, the term "pan-democracy camp" (abbreviated "pan-dems") became more commonly used as more allied parties and politicians of varying political ideologies emerged.

In the 2016 Legislative Council election, the camp faced a challenge from the new localists who emerged after the Umbrella Revolution and ran under the banner of self-determination or Hong Kong independence. After the election, some localists joined the pro-democrats' caucus, which rebranded itself as the "pro-democracy camp". [1] The disunity within the camp and the failure of the Umbrella Revolution cost the pro-democrats in the 2018 by-elections. The 2019 anti-extradition movement, however, saw a rebound in popularity for the camp, which contributed to its biggest victory in the history of Hong Kong, gaining control of 17 of the 18 District Councils and more than tripling their seats from 124 to 388 in the 2019 District Council election. In reaction to the political upheaval, the Beijing government further curbed the opposition and the disqualification of four sitting pro-democracy legislators triggered the resignations of 15 remaining pro-democrats from the legislature, leaving pro-democrats with no representation for the first time since 1998. [2]

Ideology

One of the main goals of the pro-democracy camp is to achieve universal suffrage of the Chief Executive (CE) and the Legislative Council (LegCo) as guaranteed in Article 45 and Article 68 of the Basic Law respectively. Since the National People's Congress Standing Committee's (NPCSC) 31 August 2014 decision, which determined that the Chief Executive candidate would be selected by a highly restrictive nominating committee and was seen as betrayal of the democratic value, some democrats have raised the question of the right to self-determination. However, the mainstream pro-democrats retained their support for a highly autonomous Hong Kong under the "One Country, Two Systems" framework, as promised by the Basic Law. [3]

The pro-democrats generally embrace liberal values such as rule of law, human rights, civil liberties, and social justice, though their economic positions vary. Some pro-democrats position themselves as more pro-labour while most pro-democrats believe in a more meritocratic or egalitarian society. The pro-democracy camp generally supports the Chinese democracy movement, which can be traced back to their support for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Many of the pro-democrats have been calling for the end of one party rule of the Chinese Communist Party and therefore are seen as a threat by the Beijing authorities. The camp's support for more liberal democracy is seen as unacceptable by the Beijing government. In some cases, pan-democracy activists have been labeled traitors to China. [4]

The pro-democrats are also divided by their approach for achieving democracy: the moderate democrats, represented by the Democratic Party and the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL), believe in dialogue with Beijing and Hong Kong governments over struggle, while radical democrats such as the League of Social Democrats and the People Power believe in street actions and mass movements. There have been severe conflicts and distrust between the two factions and a great split after the constitutional reform voting in 2010, where the Democratic Party negotiated with the Beijing representatives and supported the modified reform proposal and was thus seen as a betrayal by the radical democrats. [5]

History

Early development

Members of the camp include social workers and social activists emerged from the 1970s youth movements. Many of them grouped themselves as the "social action faction", competing against the pro-Communist Maoists in whom they disagreed with their ultra-nationalist and radical Maoist stances. Although claiming to be patriotic and launching the defend the Diaoyu Islands movement, the "social action faction" dedicated themselves into the local social issues in Hong Kong. They fought for the social inequality and livelihood issues, including the anti-corruption movement and Chinese Language movement and so forth. In the early 1980s when the question of Hong Kong sovereignty emerged, many of them supported a democratic autonomous Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty, notably the Meeting Point which was founded in January 1983 which became the first political group to publicly support the Chinese sovereignty of Hong Kong. [6]

After the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the pro-democrats began to join hands to demand further democracy before and after 1997. In 1986, a number of political groups, activists, professionals and politicians joined hand under the banner of the Joint Committee on the Promotion of Democratic Government (JCPDG) demanding for 1988 direct elections for the Legislative Council and earlier universal suffrage for the Chief Executive and Legislative Council after 1997, as presented in the proposal of the Group of 190. [7] Their arch rival at the time was the Group of 89, a group of conservative business and professional elites in the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee (HKBLDC) and Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee (HKBLCC). They generally opposed the British colonial administration and its perceived "kowtowing" to the Beijing government over the issues such as constitutional reform, direct elections, civic rights and Daya Bay Nuclear Plant. [7]

The pro-democrats maintained a relatively warm relationship with the Beijing government during the 1980s, as many of the pro-democrats supported the Chinese sovereignty in Hong Kong and the "high degree of autonomy" as ensured in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. They also saw the ideal of Hong Kong helping in China's Four Modernisations. [7] The Beijing authorities also viewed the pro-democrats as the targets of the united front. Barrister Martin Lee and educator Szeto Wah, president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union, who were also the two most visible pro-democracy leaders, were appointed members of the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee in 1985 by Beijing. [8]

The pro-democrats also participated in electoral politics as direct elections were introduced in local levels in the 1980s, namely the District Boards, Urban Council and Regional Council. Among them, the Meeting Point formed in 1983, the Hong Kong Affairs Society in 1985 and Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood in 1986 became the three major pro-democratic groups and formed a strategic alliance in the 1988 District Board elections, which laid the foundation of the pro-democracy grassroots supports. [9]

Tiananmen protests and last colonial years

The consolidation of its public support has its roots in opposition to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown which aroused widespread horror, sympathy and support of the protesters by Hong Kong citizens. [10] The pro-democrats, who were heavily involved in the protests and formed the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (ADSPDMC or Alliance), were seen as "treason" and threat to the Beijing government. The two pro-democracy Basic Law Drafting Committee members, Martin Lee and Szeto Wah, were stripped from the office after they resigned in protest of the bloody crackdown, many of other pro-democrats were denied entry to the Mainland China since. Since 1989, the Alliance organise annual candlelight vigil for the June 4 crackdown at the Victoria Park, Hong Kong, which draw thousands of people every year. Ahead of the first direct election to the Legislative Council in 1991, around 600 democracy activists co-founded the first major pro-democracy party, the United Democrats of Hong Kong. [11] [12]

The electoral alliance of United Democrats of Hong Kong and Meeting Point, together with other smaller political parties, groups and independents, won a historical landslide victory in the 1991 election, took 17 out of the 18 geographical constituency seats. [13] The pro-democrats were often considered strategic allies of Chris Patten, the last colonial governor who proposed a much progressive democratic reform in the last years before the handover of Hong Kong, despite Beijing's strong opposition. The Democrats supported Patten's proposal for the 1995 Legislative Council election. However, Emily Lau's full-scale direct election amendment was not passed as a result of Meeting Point's abstaining from voting for Emily Lau, which caused harsh criticism from the radical democrats and the United Ants. [12] [14] In 1994, the United Democrats and the Meeting Point merged into the Democratic Party, which won another landslide victory in the 1995 election, taking 19 seats in total, far ahead of other parties. Together with other democratic parties and individuals including Emily Lau, Lee Cheuk-yan and Leung Yiu-chung who later formed The Frontier in 1996 and Christine Loh who formed the Citizens Party in 1997, the pro-democrats gained a thin majority in the legislature for the last two years before 1997. [15] [16]

The Beijing government argued that the electoral reform introduced by Patten had violated the Joint Declaration and thus they no longer felt obliged to honour the promise of a "through train", a plan to keep the 1995 elected legislature into post-handover SAR era. A parallel Legislative Council, the Provisional Legislative Council, was formed in 1996 under the control of the Pro-Beijing camp, this became the Legislative Council upon the founding of the new SAR government in 1997, in which the pro-democrats except for the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood boycotted it, deeming it as unconstitutional. [17]

Handover to China and 1 July 2003 protest

All of its members, except the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood, declined to join the extralegal Provisional Legislative Council installed by the government of the People's Republic of China, and were ousted from the territory's legislature for a year until the 1998 election. [18] Starting from the 1998 election, since the plurality electoral system was changed to proportional representation, compounded with the restoration of corporate votes in the functional constituencies, and replacement of broad-based functional constituencies with traditional ones, the number of seats of the camp dipped, albeit having similar share of vote. [19] Within the camp, share of smaller parties and independents increased relatively, with the share of the Democratic Party falling from around two-thirds in 1995 to less than a half by 2004.

The pro-democracy camp was the strong opposition to the national security and anti-subversion legislation of the Basic Law Article 23 and they successfully called for over 500,000 people to protest on 1 July 2003 against the legislation, the largest demonstration since the handover. [20] The pro-democrats received victories in the subsequent 2003 District Councils and 2004 Legislative Council elections. The barrister-formed Article 23 Concern Group formed by the pro-democracy lawyers, which transformed into Article 45 Concern Group, saw its member Audrey Eu, Alan Leong and Ronny Tong were elected in the 2004 election. In 2006, the group formed the middle class and professional oriented Civic Party.[ citation needed ] On the other hand, the left-wing radical group League of Social Democrats was formed in the same year by Trotskyist legislator Leung Kwok-hung and radical radio host Wong Yuk-man. [21] As a result of the diversification of the pro-democracy elements, the use of "pan-democrats" gained in popularity, as it is typically meant to be non-denominational and all-inclusive.

In the 2007 Chief Executive election, Civic Party's Alan Leong successfully gained enough nominations to challenge the incumbent Chief Executive Donald Tsang, but he was not elected as expected due to the control of the Election Committee by the pro-Beijing camp. After the 2008 Legislative Council election, The Frontier merged into the Democratic Party and the convenor Emily Lau was elected vice chair of the party. [22]

2012 reform package and the Split

Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive, promised to resolve the question of universal suffrage in his office during the election. He carried out the 2012 constitutional package in 2009 which was criticised by the pro-democracy as lack of genuine progress. The League of Social Democrats called for a de facto referendum, by way of the 2010 by-elections in five geographical constituencies. [23] Civic Party, the second largest pro-democratic party joined, however the Democratic Party, the largest party, was reluctant to participate. The Democratic Party and other moderate democrats and pro-democracy scholars launched the Alliance for Universal Suffrage and started to engage with the mainland officials. The Democratic Party brought out a revised proposal of the package to Beijing and the revised proposal was passed in the Legislative Council in the support of the government and Pro-Beijing camp. [24]

However, it triggered a major split within the camp and also in the Democratic Party. The Young Turks including the LegCo member Andrew Cheng quit the party and formed the Neo Democrats. The Democratic Party was accused by the LSD and the radicals of betraying democracy and its supporters. On the matter of whether to coordinate with the moderate democrats in the 2011 District Council elections, the League of Social Democrats was suffered in the factional fighting and the two of the three LSD legislators left the party in disarray and formed the People Power. [25] The People Power's campaign targeted pan-democracy parties in the 2011 District Council elections that had supported the reform package filled candidates to run against them but only won one seat of 62 contested.

Nevertheless, the People Power managed to win three seats in the 2012 Legislative Council election and the radical democrats of the (People Power and the League of Social Democrats) topped 264,000 votes, compared to the Civic Party's 255,000 and Democratic Party's 247,000 respectively. [26] Despite the pan-democrats securing three of the five newly created, District Council (second) constituency seats the ratio of the vote share between the pan-democrats and the pro-Beijing camp narrowed significantly from the traditional 60% to 40%, to 55% to 45%.

The chairman of the Democratic Party Albert Ho represented the pan-democracy camp to run in the 2012 Chief Executive election. On election day the pan-democrats declined to vote for neither Henry Tang nor Leung Chun-ying and called for a blank vote from the electors. [27]

2014 Umbrella Revolution

In March 2013, all 27 democratic legislators formed the Alliance for True Democracy (ATD), replacing the Alliance for Universal Suffrage, to show solidarity of the camp to fight for genuine democracy. The ATD put forward a three-channel proposal for the 2017 Chief Executive election during the constitutional reform consultation in 2014. However, the decision of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) on 31 August ruled out the possibility for any candidate not endorsed by Beijing to be nominated for the election, which the pan-democrats accused as a betrayal of the principle of "one person, one vote," The pan-democrats had supported legal scholar Benny Tai's Occupy Central plan of civil disobedience against Beijing's decision, which later turned into a 79-day occupy protest which often dubbed as "Umbrella Revolution". [3] On 18 June 2015, all 27 pan-democrat legislators and Medical legislator Leung Ka-lau voted against the government's constitutional reform bill while the pro-Beijing legislators launched a failed walk-out. The bill was defeated by 28 against 8 for, barely meeting the quorum of 35. [28]

Many new political groups emerged from the Umbrella Revolution often distanced themselves from the pan-democrats. Many of whom, being labelled as "localists", criticised pan-democrats' failing in achieving democracy in the last 30 years. Many of them called for more "militant" tactics over pan-democrats' "non-violent" principles and "China–Hong Kong separation" over the some mainstream pan-democrats' mild "Chinese nationalist sentiment". [29] Some of them also criticised pan-democrats' demand of the vindication of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, as pursued by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HKASPDMC). There was also growing voice for Hong Kong independence from the Chinese rule, as many of whom deemed the "One Country, Two Systems" had failed. [30]

Continued division and anti-extradition protests

In the 2016 Legislative Council election, localist camp with different banners together took away 19 per cent of the vote share from the pan-democrats, in which the traditional pan-democrats secured only 36 per cent, 21 less than the previous election. The non-establishment forces secured 30 out of the 70 seats, in which pan-democrats took 23 seats. After the election, the 27-member pro-democrats' caucus rebranded themselves into "pro-democracy camp" or "G27", as three backers of the "self-determination" of Hong Kong, namely Nathan Law, Lau Siu-lai and Eddie Chu joined the caucus. [1] The "G27" soon became "G26" after Chu left the caucus shortly afterwards.

In the 2016 Election Committee subsector election, the pro-democrat coalition "Democrats 300+" scored a record victory in the Election Committee which was responsible for electing the 2017 Chief Executive. The democrats decided not to field their candidate in order to boost the chance of an alternative establishment candidate against incumbent Leung Chun-ying. After Leung announced he would not seek for re-election, the pro-democrats turned against Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam who was seen as "C.Y. 2.0". The pro-democrats nominated former Financial Secretary John Tsang and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing amid the Liaison Office actively lobbied for Lam. Ahead of the election, some 98 per cent of the "Democrats 300+" coalition decided on voting for Tsang as he was the most popular candidate in the polls. [31]

On 14 July 2017, Leung Kwok-hung of the League of Social Democrats, Nathan Law of the Demosisto, Yiu Chung-yim and Lau Siu-lai were unseated from the Legislative Council over their manners at the oath-taking ceremony at the inaugural meeting as a result of the legal action from the Leung Chun-ying government and the interpretation of the Hong Kong Basic Law by the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC), following the disqualification of two pro-independence legislators, Youngspiration's Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching. [32]

The pro-democrats suffered a defeat in the by-election for four of the six vacancies on 11 March 2018, losing the Kowloon West geographical constituency and Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape functional constituency to the pro-Beijing candidates. Yiu Ching-yim who contested in Kowloon West was defeated by Vincent Cheng of the DAB with a thin margin, making it the first time a pro-democrat lost in a single-member district election since the handover. The vote share of the pro-democrats also dropped from the traditional 55 per cent to only 47 per cent. [33]

The pro-democrats fiercely opposed the amendment to the extradition law in 2019 which they feared the erosion of Hong Kong's legal system and its built-in safeguards. [34] [35] The opposition led to the historic massive protests throughout the latter half of the year. Riding on the anti-government sentiments, the pro-democracy camp achieved its biggest landslide victory in the history of Hong Kong in the 2019 District Council election, gaining control of 17 of the 18 District Councils and tripling their seats from around 124 to about 388. The pro-democrats were also able to capture 117 District Council subsector seats in the 1,200-member Election Committee, which is responsible for electing the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. Pro-Beijing parties and independents won from around 300 to only 62 seats, losing nearly 80 per cent of the seats. [36] [37]

2020 resignation en masse

The Hong Kong national security law promulgated by the NPCSC in June 2020 gave sweeping power to the Hong Kong government to suppress the opposition whoever was perceived as the "threat of the national security". In the subsequently postponed Legislative Council election in September 2020, 12 pro-democracy and localist candidates were disqualified by the returning officers for breaching the national security law, including three Civic Party incumbent legislators Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki and Dennis Kwok, as well as Kenneth Leung. [38] The pro-democracy camp was divided whether to stay in the extended legislative term or to quit as they deemed the disqualifications as unlawful. In the end, 19 of the 22 pro-democrats remained in the Legislative Council. [39]

In November 2020, the NPCSC applied the national security law to disqualify the four sitting legislators whose candidacies were previously invalidated. In response, the pro-democrat convenor and Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai announced the remaining 15 pro-democracy legislators were to resign en masse in protest to the decision, declaring the death of the "One Country, Two Systems" and separation of power in Hong Kong. The mass resignations left virtually no opposition in the Legislative Council. [2] [40] [41]

Convenor

A caucus-like mechanism, without whips, was established on 8 October 2004 and was then known as "Lunchbox Conference", as legislators discussed local and political issues during luncheon on every Fridays. The convenor was the nominal leader of the camp but did not contain any real powers. [35] It was renamed as "Pro-Democracy Camp Meetings" after 2016 election. [42] The conference ceased to function after en masse resignations in 2020.

Convenor of Pro-Democracy Camp Meetings
PortraitConvenorConstituencyTook officeLeft officePartyLegCoRef
Cyd Ho at January 2013 protest (cropped).jpg Cyd Ho Hong Kong Island 8 October 20045 October 2012 Civic Act-up 3rd
4th
Labour [43]
Emily Lau Wai Hing 2010 Enlarged.jpg Emily Lau New Territories East 5 October 2012September 2013 Democratic 5th [44]
Democrats-fail-to-regain-veto-power-4 (cropped).jpg Frederick Fung District Council (Second) September 201315 September 2014 ADPL [45]
Alan Leong 2013.jpg Alan Leong Kowloon East 16 September 20149 September 2015 Civic [46]
Cyd Ho at January 2013 protest (cropped).jpg Cyd Ho Hong Kong Island 10 September 201528 September 2016 Labour [47]
James To Kun-sun.jpg James To District Council (Second) 28 September 201625 August 2017 Democratic 6th [48]
Xiang Gang Zi Xun Ke Ji Jie Li Fa Hui Yi Yuan Mo Nai Guang .jpg Charles Mok Information Technology 25 August 20179 July 2018 Prof Commons [49]
Claudia Mo 2013.jpg Claudia Mo Kowloon West 9 July 201828 September 2019 HK First [50]
Tanya Chan.jpg Tanya Chan Hong Kong Island 28 September 201929 September 2020 Civic [51]
Tsang announcement to run for hk ceo 8.jpg Wu Chi-wai Kowloon East 29 September 202030 November 2020 Democratic [52]

Political parties

This list includes the major political parties and groups in Hong Kong:

Former Parties

Civil groups

Electoral performance

Chief Executive elections

ElectionCandidatePartyVotes %
1996 Did not contest
2002 Did not contest
2005 Lee Wing-tat Democratic Not nominated
2007 Alan Leong Civic 12315.93
2012 Albert Ho Democratic 767.24
2017 Leung Kwok-hung [a] LSD Not nominated
2022 Did not contest

Legislative Council elections

ElectionNumber of
popular votes
 % of
popular votes
GC
seats
FC
seats
EC
seats
Total seats+/−Status
1991 843,888 [b] Steady2.svg61.63Steady2.svg167
20 / 60
13Increase2.svg
1995 557,515Steady2.svg61.13Decrease2.svg16103
29 / 60
11Increase2.svg
1998 982,249Increase2.svg66.36Increase2.svg1550
20 / 60
Minority
2000 799,249Decrease2.svg60.56Decrease2.svg1650
21 / 60
1Increase2.svgMinority
2004 1,105,388Increase2.svg62.44Increase2.svg187
25 / 60
3Increase2.svgMinority
2008 901,707Decrease2.svg59.50Decrease2.svg194
23 / 60
3Decrease2.svgMinority
2012 1,036,998Increase2.svg57.26Decrease2.svg189
27 / 70
4Increase2.svgMinority
2016 781,168Decrease2.svg36.02Decrease2.svg1310
23 / 70
3Decrease2.svgMinority
2021 Did not contest000
0 / 90
0Steady2.svgExtra-parliamentary

Municipal elections

ElectionNumber of
popular votes
 % of
popular votes
UrbCo
seats
RegCo
seats
Total
elected seats
1989 68,831Steady2.svg32.38Steady2.svg
5 / 15
5 / 12
10 / 27
1991 200,877Increase2.svg51.28Increase2.svg
6 / 15
7 / 12
14 / 27
1995 287,226Increase2.svg51.51Increase2.svg
18 / 32
16 / 27
34 / 59

District Council elections

ElectionNumber of
popular votes
 % of
popular votes
Total
elected seats
+/−
1988 139,982Steady2.svg22.16Steady2.svg
61 / 264
24Increase2.svg
1991 170,757Increase2.svg32.11Increase2.svg
83 / 272
22Increase2.svg
1994 280,707Increase2.svg40.89Increase2.svg
146 / 346
48Increase2.svg
1999 325,829Increase2.svg40.18Decrease2.svg
157 / 390
22Increase2.svg
2003 477,596Increase2.svg45.54Increase2.svg
198 / 400
38Increase2.svg
2007 445,781Decrease2.svg39.15Decrease2.svg
127 / 405
56Decrease2.svg
2011 464,512Increase2.svg39.34Increase2.svg
103 / 412
16Decrease2.svg
2015 581,058Increase2.svg40.20Increase2.svg
126 / 431
25Increase2.svg
2019 1,674,083Increase2.svg57.10Increase2.svg
388 / 452
265Increase2.svg
2023 N/AN/A
0 / 470
388Decrease2.svg

See also

Notes

  1. Not endorsed by mainstream pro-democrats.
  2. Each voter was given two votes in the 1991 election.

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Localist camp or localist and self-determination groups refers to the various groups with localist ideologies in Hong Kong. It emerged from post-80s social movements in the late 2000s which centred on the preservation of the city's autonomy and local lifestyles and opposed the perceived growing encroachment of the Chinese government on the city's management of its own political, economic, and social affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Path of Democracy</span> Political party in Hong Kong

Path of Democracy is a political group and think tank established in 2015 in Hong Kong. It is led by former Civic Party legislator Ronny Tong, who joined the Executive Council on 1 July 2017. Although officially unaligned with either the pro-Beijing camp or the pro-democracy camp, the group has been supportive of the policies and legislation put forward by the former, and was considered by the media to be pro-Beijing by 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">6th Legislative Council of Hong Kong</span> 2016–2020 Legislative Council of Hong Kong

The Sixth Legislative Council of Hong Kong was the sixth meeting of the legislative branch of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Running from 1 October 2016 to 31 December 2021, it was the longest legislative session in Hong Kong history, lasted for five years and three months. The term of the session was originally from 1 October 2016 to 30 September 2020, but was extended by the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) due to the postponement of the 2020 Legislative Council election.

The Hong Kong Legislative Council members' oath-taking controversy was a series of events surrounding the oaths of office of a dozen pro-democracy and localist camp members-elect of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) on 12 October 2016 which have resulted in the disqualification of six members, Sixtus "Baggio" Leung and Yau Wai-ching of Youngspiration, who were unseated by the court on 15 November 2016, and Leung Kwok-hung, Nathan Law, Yiu Chung-yim and Lau Siu-lai on 14 July 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">November 2018 Kowloon West by-election</span>

The 2018 Kowloon West by-election was held on 25 November 2018 after the incumbent pro-democracy Legislative Councillor Lau Siu-lai of Kowloon West was disqualified from the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) after the oath-taking controversy resulted in the disqualifications of the six pro-democracy and localist legislators. It followed the by-election of four other vacated seats on 11 March 2018. Chan Hoi-yan, a nonpartisan backed by the pro-Beijing camp won over veteran democrat Lee Cheuk-yan of the Labour Party, a backup candidate for the pro-democracy camp after Lau's candidacy was disqualified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">March 2018 Hong Kong by-elections</span>

The 2018 Hong Kong Legislative Council by-election was held on 11 March 2018 for four of the six vacancies in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) - the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon West and New Territories East geographical constituencies and the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape functional constituency - resulting from the disqualification of six pro-democrat and localist camp Legislative Council members over the 2016 oath-taking controversy. The by-election for the two other seats was not held due to pending legal appeals by the two disqualified legislators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries</span>

The 2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries were held on 11 and 12 July 2020 for selecting the numbers of pro-democracy candidates for the subsequently postponed 2020 Legislative Council election to maximise the chance for the pro-democrats to achieve a majority in the 70-seat Legislative Council.

The Professionals Guild was a pro-democracy parliamentary group in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. All legislators in the group were elected through professional sectors in the Functional Constituencies. The group was active between the 2016 Legislative Council election and the mass-resignation of pro-democracy legislators in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Hong Kong Legislative Council mass resignations</span>

On 11 November 2020, 15 Hong Kong pro-democracy members of the Legislative Council announced their resignations in protest against the decision of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) which bars Legislative Council members from supporting Hong Kong independence, refusing to recognise Beijing's sovereignty over Hong Kong, seeking help from "foreign countries or foreign forces to interfere in the affairs of the region" or committing "other acts that endanger national security" that resulted in the disqualification of pro-democracy legislators Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung. In July 2020, the four had been barred from running in the subsequently postponed Legislative Council election originally scheduled for September 2020. The resignation en masse left the Legislative Council membership dwindled to 43 out of the total number of 70 seats, with virtually no opposition for the first time since the 1997 handover.

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