Liberal Party (Hong Kong)

Liberal Party
自由黨
LeaderTommy Cheung
ChairmanPeter Shiu
Vice-ChairmenNicholas Chan
Alan Hoo
Lee Chun-keung
Founded6 June 1993; 31 years ago (1993-06-06)
Preceded byCo-operative
Resources Centre
Headquarters2/F New Hennessy
Tower, 263 Hennessy
Road
, Wan Chai,
Hong Kong
Youth wingLiberal Party
Youth Committee
Membership (2017)Increase ~500
Ideology
Political positionCentre-right[3]
Regional affiliationPro-Beijing camp
Colours   Blue and green
  Yellow (formerly)
Executive Council
1 / 33
Legislative Council
4 / 90
District Councils
8 / 470
NPC (HK deputies)
1 / 36
CPPCC (HK members)
4 / 124
Website
www.liberal.org.hk
Liberal Party
Traditional Chinese自由黨
Simplified Chinese自由党
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinZìyóu dǎng
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationJih yàuh dóng
JyutpingZi6 jau4 dong2

The Liberal Party (LP) is a pro-Beijing, pro-business, and conservative[4] political party in Hong Kong. Led by Tommy Cheung and chaired by Peter Shiu, it holds four seats in the Legislative Council, and holds five seats in the District Councils.

Founded in 1993 on the basis of the Co-operative Resources Centre, the Liberal Party was founded by a group of conservative politicians, businessmen and professionals who were either appointed by the colonial governor or indirectly elected through the trade-based functional constituencies, to counter the liberal United Democrats of Hong Kong who emerged from the first Legislative Council direct election in 1991.

Led by Allen Lee, the party adopted a friendly approach with the Beijing authorities to oppose last governor Chris Patten's constitutional reform proposal in the final colonial years. Enjoyed by the advantage in the narrowly-franchised functional constituencies, the Liberals remained a major party and a governing ally of the SAR administration in the early post-handover era, despite its chairman Allen Lee's failed attempt in the direct election.

The Liberal popularity rose to its peak in 2003 when party chairman James Tien broke away from the government to voice against the Basic Law Article 23 which eventually brought down the proposed bill. The Liberal Party enjoyed an electoral success in the 2004 Legislative Council election where James Tien and vice chairwoman Selina Chow both won a seat in the direct election, bringing the party 10 seats in the legislature. Although the Liberal Party sits with the pro-establishment camp in the Legislative Council, it took a more ambiguous and sometimes rebellious stance against the SAR government under Tien's more moderate leadership and was called a "wall-rider" party in Hong Kong political discourse for swaying between supporting the pro-Beijing SAR administration and the voters on certain issues.[5]

The party lost both of its directly elected seats in the 2008 Legislative Council election and led to the split within the party where four of its seven legislators left the party. In the 2012 Chief Executive election, the Liberals openly opposed Leung Chun-ying who became the eventual winner with Beijing's blessing. The party was then increasingly sidelined by the administration. In 2014, party leader James Tien was unseated from CPPCC for asking Leung to step down.

The Liberals lost their only directly elected seat when Tien retired in 2016, dwindling to four seats in the legislature. The party was divided in the 2017 Chief Executive election when the wing led by former party leader James Tien supported Financial Secretary John Tsang while the wing led by party chairman and Executive Councillor Tommy Cheung voted for Chief Secretary Carrie Lam who was Beijing's favourite. The party became further polarized over the proposed extradition bill controversy and the 9 June protest with Tien's faction wanting to scrap the bill and calling for Lam's resignation while the new Liberal Party leadership expressed their support for Lam.[6] Some members of Tien's moderate faction founded the Hope for Hong Kong organisation to explore a middle ground between the pro-Beijing and pro-democracy camps. Tien's faction were later forced out from the party when the central committee decided to scrap the titles of honorary chairperson in August 2022.

  1. ^ "定位中間偏右 圖擺脫大財團影子 自由黨開班惡補政治". Apple Daily. 31 December 2008.
  2. ^ 黃以謙 (2015). 進擊の區議員: 我要真, 真普選 (in Chinese). Xianggang cai jing yi dong chu ban. ... 中間偏右路線之外,亦令自由黨失去社會泛階層的支持。
  3. ^ [1][2]
  4. ^ Horlemann, Ralf (2013). Hong Kong's Transition to Chinese Rule: The Limits of Autonomy. Routledge. p. 48.
  5. ^ "自由黨屢分裂‎ 23條倒戈最經典‎ 田北俊近年成黨內「小眾」終退黨". HK01. 10 August 2022.
  6. ^ "自由黨屢分裂‎ 23條倒戈最經典‎ 田北俊近年成黨內「小眾」終退黨". HK01. 10 August 2022.