Liberalism in Hong Kong

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Liberalism has a long tradition as an

democratic movement since the 1980s which is mainly represented by the pro-democracy camp which strives for the universal suffrage, human rights and rule of law
in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was established as a free trading port by Britain in 1841 and has been strongly influenced by the

Ho Kai and revolutionaries such as Yeung Ku-wan and Sun Yat-sen. A small scale self-government movement derived from Governor Mark Aitchison Young's proposed constitutional reform
in the early post-war period.

The emergence of the contemporary liberalism took root in the rapid democratisation in the final years of the colonial years in the 1980s and 1990s, which the pro-democracy camp was united under the banner of an autonomous Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty. The liberals consolidated their popular support from the

in 2003.

The liberals suffered from internal crises and fragmentation over the approaches on fighting for full democracy and safeguarding Hong Kong's liberal values against Beijing's increasing encroachment on Hong Kong's autonomy, which led to the

historic anti-government protests
in 2019 resulted in Beijing's heavy-handed crackdown and subsequent retaliation, which put the liberal movement into limbo.

Liberal roots in the 19th to early 20th century

Laissez-faire liberalism

The cession of Hong Kong under the

free port of Hong Kong, taking advantage as the gateway to the vast Chinese market, Hong Kong merchants, the so-called compradors, had taken a leading role in investment and trading opportunities by serving as middlemen between the European and indigenous population in China and Hong Kong,[2] in the principles of laissez-faire classical liberalism
, which has since dominated the economic discourse of Hong Kong.

Sir John Bowring, the Governor of Hong Kong from 1854 to 1859 and a disciple of liberal philosopher Jeremy Bentham for instance was a chief campaigner of free trade at the time. He believed that "Jesus Christ is free trade and free trade is Jesus Christ."[3] In 1858, Bowring proudly claimed that "Hong Kong presents another example of elasticity and potency of unrestricted commerce."[2]

The free market tradition lasted throughout Hong Kong history, and the city was rated the world's freest economy for 25 years, from 1995 to 2020,

libertarian economist Milton Friedman.[6][7]

Political liberalism

Ho Kai
, a Chinese reformist politician who was inspired by western liberal ideas

Compared to

Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who had studied in Hong Kong and had stated that he got the inspiration for his revolutionary and modernist ideas from Hong Kong.[9]

One of the earliest revolutionary organisations, the

Pak Tsz Lane, in Central, Hong Kong, and released books and papers discussing the future of China and advocating the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of a democratic republic in China, priding themselves on the motto of "full-hearted patriotism" and striving for knowledge, inquiry and public awareness.[11] The society was later merged into the Revive China Society secretly founded by Sun Yat-sen in 1894.[12]

There were very few liberal reforms carried out by the colonial government towards the end of the 19th century. For instance, Sir John Bowring proposed that the elections to the

Sir

flogging as a form of punishment, which received widespread opposition from the European community, who even held a public protest meeting against his proposal.[15]

There were sporadic voices for political liberalisation in Hong Kong during the late 19th and early 20th century. One of the examples was the

P. H. Holyoak, it submitted a proposal of introducing unofficial majority within the Legislative Council to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, represented by member of parliament Colonel John Ward, but the proposal was ultimately rejected by the Colonial Office.[16] Failing to obtain any meaningful success for their proposals, the Constitutional Reform Association ceased to exist by October 1923.[17]

Post-war liberal trends

Young Plan

The liberal movement experienced a resurgence following the return of British rule in 1945, after a three-year long Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Governor Mark Aitchison Young announced the plan for constitutional changes on the day of the return of the civil government in 1946, as "an appropriate and acceptable means of affording to all communities in Hong Kong an opportunity of more active political participation, through their responsible representatives, in the administration of the Territory."[18] It proposed to set up a municipal council which would give Hong Kong a limited degree of representative government.[19]

The Young Plan generated debates in the local community. Several political groups were set up to participate in the debate over political liberalisation, such as the

opposition parties in Hong Kong during the post-war colonial period.[22]

Self-government movement

The call for political liberalisation and

self-government continued in the 1950s and 1960s. The United Nations Association of Hong Kong (UNAHK), formed by Ma Man-fai in 1953, demanded sovereignty in Hong Kong. In a proposal drafted in 1961, the association laid out a plan for an ultimately fully direct election for the Legislative Council, which in that period was appointed by the governor. The Reform Club and the Civic Association also formed a coalition in 1960 and sent a delegate to London to demand fully direct elections to the Legislative Council and universal suffrage, but failed to negotiate any meaningful reforms.[23]

The self-proclaimed "

anti-colonial" Democratic Self-Government Party of Hong Kong was set up in 1963, calling for a fully independent government in which the Chief Minister would be elected by all Hong Kong residents, while the British government would only preserve its power over diplomacy and military.[24]

There were also the Hong Kong Socialist Democratic Party and the Labour Party of Hong Kong, which took a more left-leaning and democratic socialist approach to Hong Kong's independence and decolonization.[25][26]

In 1966, Urban Councillor

Elsie Elliott, who was also member of the UNAHK, visited London and met with British government officials and Members of Parliament, asking for constitutional reform towards sovereignty, a reform of the judiciary towards impartiality and equal representation, and comprehensive anti-corruption investigations of the colonial nomenklatura and legal authorities.[27][28] After once again failing to obtain any successful concessions, all the parties advocating for the self-government in Hong Kong ceased to exist by the mid-1970s.[24]

Positive non-interventionism

Economic liberalism and free-market capitalism remained the dominant economic philosophy in Hong Kong throughout its history. In 1971,

regulation, but it was important to create the regulatory and physical infrastructure to facilitate market-based decision making. This policy was continued by subsequent Financial Secretaries, including Sir Philip Haddon-Cave
, who said that "positive non-interventionism involves taking the view that it is usually futile and damaging to the growth rate of an economy, particularly an open economy, for the Government to attempt to plan the allocation of resources available to the private sector and to frustrate the operation of market forces", although he stated that the description of Hong Kong as a laissez-faire society was "frequent but inadequate".

The economic philosophy was highly praised by economist

Wall Street Journal, criticizing Donald Tsang, then Chief Executive of Hong Kong who had the slogan of "big market, small government," where small government is defined as less than 20 per cent of the GDP, for abandoning the doctrine of "positive non-interventionism."[29]

1970s student movements

The 1970s in Hong Kong were the prime years of liberal student movements. Although the student unions were all dominated by the

pro-democracy movement
at the turn of the 21st century.

Waves of liberalisation in the 1980s and 1990s

Sino-British agreement and drafting of the Basic Law

In the late 1970s, the

Urban Council.[30]

While the Beijing authorities insisted China shall resume its sovereignty over Hong Kong after 1997,

Three Principles of People, "Nation, Democracy and People's Livelihood." It became one of the earliest groups in Hong Kong that favoured Chinese sovereignty, but they also wanted a free, democratic and autonomous Hong Kong.[31]

The

decolonisation by gradually introducing representative democracy into Hong Kong. The reform proposals were first carried out in the Green Paper: the Further Development of Representative Government in July 1984 which allowed 24 seats in the Legislative Council to be indirectly elected by electoral college in 1985.[33]

During the period, many liberal political groups were formed to contest the electoral politics in different levels. By the late 1980s, the Meeting Point led by Yeung Sum, the Hong Kong Affairs Society led by Albert Ho formed in 1985, and the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (HKADPL) led by Frederick Fung became the three major liberal political forces active in elections. The liberals also formed the Joint Committee on the Promotion of Democratic Government (JCPDG) to demand a faster pace of democratisation and to introduce direct elections in the 1988 Legislative Council.[34] It was led by the two most prominent liberal icons, Martin Lee and Szeto Wah, who were elected to the Legislative Council and were also appointed by Beijing into the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee (BLDC), to draft the provisional constitution of the Hong Kong government after 1997.

To counter the liberal emergence, the business elites formed a

Beijing loyalists, which warned of the rise of populism and disruption to the prosperity and stability if democratisation was to implement too quick.[35] In the BLDC, the liberal faction, the Group of 190 also faced the conservative Group of 89
, who favoured a less democratic system after 1997. Hong Kong became increasingly politicised in the latter half of the 1980s with two rival blocs debating on the pace of democratisation as well as various political and social issues.

Tiananmen protest and the liberal zenith

Hong Kong democracy movement

The liberals supported the democratic cause of the

Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China (HKASPDMC) to provide material supports to the student protesters in Beijing. Several solidarity demonstrations in May 1989 also attended by up to a million Hong Kong residents. The star-dubbed Concert for Democracy in China also raised more than over HK$12 million for the students in Beijing.[36][37] The bloody crackdown on the protest on 4 June 1989 shocked the general public in Hong Kong and triggered a crisis of confidence in Hong Kong's future under Chinese rule, leading to the massive emigration waves on eve of the handover of Hong Kong.[38]

Prominent liberal leaders Martin Lee and Szeto Wah resigned from the BLDC as an act of protest against the Beijing government after the massacre and the warm relationship between Beijing and pro-democrats have broken off since. The democrats have held the

annual Tiananmen vigils every year and called for the end of one-party rule in China which was seen as "treason" and "subversive" by the Beijing authorities. The widespread fear of the Communist regime and the support for democracy also consolidated the popular foundation of the pro-democracy camp. In the first Legislative Council direct election in 1991, the liberals united under the banner of the United Democrats of Hong Kong (UDHK) which became the first major political party in Hong Kong's history. The UDHK and Meeting Point alliance and other pro-democratic independents including Emily Lau swept the votes by winning 16 of the 18 direct elected seats. To counter the liberal rise in the legislature, the conservative business elites formed the Liberal Party in 1993 which positioned itself as the defender of economically liberal values such as free market and free enterprise but took political conservative positions
against democratisation.

The arrival of the last governor

British Conservative Party, also brought a paradigm shift on Hong Kong politics. Despite Beijing's strong opposition, he put forward the progressive constitutional reform proposals to enfranchise 2.7 million new voters and lower the voting age from 21 to 18.[39] Safeguarded by the liberal majority, the Patten proposals were passed in the Legislative Council after unprecedented political wrangling despite the Beijing's attempt to defeat the bill by allying the business elites. In the substantially more democratic elections in 1995, the Democratic Party, formed out of the merger of the United Democrats and the Meeting Point movement received another landslide victory, winning half of the Legislative Council seats. Many liberal pieces of legislation were able to pass in the final years of colonial rule, such as decriminalising same-sex acts, abolishing death penalty and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance. Given the booming Hong Kong economy, the colonial government also mildly expanded social welfare and public housing. At the time, there were also new liberal parties being set up, such as the radical The Frontier, led by Emily Lau, and the Citizens Party, led by Christine Loh
.

In response to the Patten proposals, the Beijing government set up the Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) which was seen as unconstitutional by the pro-democrats. The pro-democrats, except for the HKADPL, boycotted the PLC and stepped down as legislators during the last days of colonial rule. The pro-democrats ran again in the first legislative elections of the SAR period. Although the pro-democrats continuously received about 55 to 60 per cent of the popular vote in every election held since 1997, their influence was contained and hampered by the indirectly elected trade-based functional constituencies.

Democratic stagnation in the early handover period

Basic Law Article 23 and 2003 pro-democracy wave

Basic Law Article 23
, which drew in excess of 500,000 protesters

Being excluded from the government by the unique design of the electoral system and composition of the

Hong Kong Basic Law Article 45 and Article 68.[40] The pro-democrats launched a civil nomination to nominate Szeto Wah to run in a mock first SAR Chief Executive election
, while some activists launched a protest on the establishment day of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) on 1 July to call for the implementation of universal suffrage and the abolishing of the functional constituencies.

The Democratic Party, the flagship liberal party of Hong Kong, suffered from the intra-party factional struggles in the first SAR years where the more radical pro-grassroots "Young Turks" split from the party after

social democratic and pro-working-class stance and later joined Emily Lau
's The Frontier.

Between 2002 and 2003 when Hong Kong was still suffering from the

SARS epidemic, the Tung Chee-hwa administration proposed the national security legislation enforcing the Basic Law Article 23 sparked the fear among the liberals who deemed the bill a potential threat to Hong Kong people's civil liberties. On 1 July 2003, an estimated 350,000 to 700,000 people marched to the street against the unpopular Tung administration which eventually brought down the legislation. The massive demonstration reenergised the pro-democracy movement, which saw a wave of new activists participating in social activism and electoral politics which led to the formation of the middle-class and professional oriented Civic Party and the social democratic League of Social Democrats
(LSD) in 2006.

The liberal movement lost its momentum after the 2004 decision of the

Election Committee strictly controlled by Beijing. Alan Leong ultimately lost to incumbent Chief Executive Donald Tsang, receiving only 15 per cent of the electoral votes. In December 2007, the NPCSC once again ruled out universal suffrage in 2012 but stated that the 2017 Chief Executive election may be held with universal suffrage.[41]

Liberal disarray and Umbrella Revolution

The "Umbrella Man" photo as police dispersed protesters with tear gas on 28 September 2014

In 2009, the radical

Liaison Office, the central government accepted the Democratic Party's modified proposals to allow ten new seats to be directly elected.[42] The negotiation was seen as an "act of betrayal" by the radicals which led to emergence of the People Power running against the Democratic Party in the 2011 District Council election
.

Dissatisfied with the traditional liberals' little success in resisting Beijing's growing economic and political influence over Hong Kong, a young generation of

cultural liberals
and resulted in further fragmentation within the pro-democracy camp.

In 2013, legal scholar

Central Government Complex.[46][47] The confrontations between the protesters and police eventually escalated to the 79-day massive sit-in in various locations in Hong Kong known as the "Umbrella Revolution" due to the protesters' use of umbrellas as a tool for defence from the police's assaults.[48]

Although the Occupy protests ended without any political concessions from the government, it precipitated a generation of galvanised youth and awakening of Hong Kong people's civic consciousness.

oath-taking manners by some localist legislators-elect, the NPCSC unprecedentedly interpreted the Basic Law which led to the disqualification of six liberal and localist legislators including Nathan Law.[51]

Liberals under the national security law

The liberal movement went through a slump after the failure of the

massive anti-government protests which attracted more than a million demonstrators into the streets and direct confrontations between the protesters and police.[53][54][55]

As the protests progressed, activists laid out five key demands including the introduction of universal suffrage.

siege of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in mid November. The 24 November District Council election, which was widely seen as a de facto referendum on the protest, resulted in the historic landslide victory for the liberals and localists, where the pro-Beijing camp lost nearly four-fifth of its seats.[58][59][60]

To curb the protests, the government invoked the

raided the offices of Next Digital, the parent company of prominent local liberal newspaper Apple Daily and arrested its founder and outspoken activist Jimmy Lai and his two sons on the suspicion of violating the national security law.[65]

In July, the pro-democrats launched an

List of liberal parties

Meeting Point

Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood

Hong Kong Democratic Foundation

United Democrats to Democratic Party

  • 1990: The liberals united in the United Democrats of Hong Kong
  • 1994: The Meeting Point merged into the ⇒ Democratic Party
  • 2000: The left-wing faction left and formed the ⇒ Social Democratic Forum
  • 2008: The Frontier merged into the ⇒ Democratic Party
  • 2010: The young Turks left and formed the ⇒ Neo Democrats
  • 2015: The moderate faction left and formed the ⇒ Third Side

Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions

Democratic Alliance

  • 1994: Pro-Taiwan politicians formed 123 Democratic Alliance
  • 2000: The party was dissolved
  • 2003: Former members formed
    Yuen Long Tin Shui Wai Democratic Alliance
  • 2011: The Democratic Alliance formed alliance with the ⇒ People Power
  • 2012: The Democratic Alliance broke away from the People Power
  • 2021: The party was dissolved

The Frontier

  • 1996: The
    United Ants
    formed the Frontier
  • 2003: Cyd Ho of the group formed the ⇒ Civic Act-up
  • 2006: The social democratic faction left and formed the ⇒ League of Social Democrats
  • 2008: The party merged into the ⇒ Democratic Party
  • 2010: The radical faction re-registered the party
  • 2011: The party formed alliance with the ⇒ People Power
  • 2016: The party broke away from the People Power

Citizens Party

Article 23 Concern Group to Civic Party

Civic Act-up

  • 2003: Cyd Ho formed the Civic Act-up
  • 2012: The group formed the ⇒ Labour Party

League of Social Democrats

  • 2006: Formation of the League of Social Democrats
  • 2011: Members of the party left and formed the ⇒ People Power

Neo Democrats

  • 2010: Formation of the Neo Democrats
  • 2021: The party was dissolved

People Power

Labour Party

  • 2012: Formation of the Labour Party

Demosistō

  • 2016: Formation of
    Demosistō
  • 2020: The party was dissolved

Liberal figures and organisations

See also

Other ideologies in Hong Kong

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