Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China latest organisation to consider disbanding.
The group behind Hong Kong’s The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China is the latest opposition organisation to consider folding, after two other civic groups being investigated under the national security law did so. The alliance – the only group in the country openly calling for an end to “one-party dictatorship” – has come under increasing political pressure since Beijing imposed the sweeping legislation on the city on June 30 last year. Simon Leung Kam-wai, an alliance representative, told the Post on Saturday that the group would hold a meeting among remaining core members to discuss whether to disband, as one of the possible responses to “the dire political environment”. “The pressure is partly from the recent wave of closure of newspaper Apple Daily, the Civil Human Rights Front and the Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU),” Leung, who is also chairman of the Kwai Tsing District Council, said. “We have been evaluating the risks from time to time.” Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung has suggested that the PTU and the front, the organiser of major protests in the city, be investigated for national security offences, adding that disbanding would not protect them from prosecution. Leung would not disclose the exact date and time of the coming meeting, citing “internal matters”.
