Hong Kong’s last active pro-democracy group to disband
Hong Kong’s Union of Social Democrats is dispersed in the middle of the “enormous political pressure” from five-year national security pressure and leaves the city ruled by China without the presence of pro-official-democracy opposition.
In the last two years, LSD has been the third largest opposition party of the shutter in Hong Kong.
Founded in 2006 by former deputy Leung Kwok-Hung as a radical wing of the pro-democracy camp, LSD was the last group organizing small protests this year in Hong Kong.
Mass public meetings and marches led by political and civil society groups were common in Hong Kong until 2020, but the threat of prosecution has largely closed organized protests.
In 2020, China imposed a national security law on the former British colony, and in 2019, after mass pro -democracy protests, he punished crimes such as demolition with possible life prison.
A second set of law, known as Article 23, was adopted in 2024 by the pro -declaration legislative body, including the city’s Sedition and Treason.
The current president Chan Po-Ying said that the group decided to close it after considering the security of party members. Chan refused to specify which pressures they encountered.
“We have endeavored to imprisonment while witnessing the difficulties of internal disputes and the erosion of civil society, the fading of the base, the red lines are found everywhere and the ruthlessly suppression of the opposition.”
In February, the city’s largest and most popular opposition party, the Democratic Party, announced that it would disintegrate.
A few senior members told Reuters that they were warned by Beijing, warned that their inability to do so would mean serious results, including possible arrests.
Earlier this month, China’s senior official in Hong Kong, Xia Baolong, stressed that national security activities should continue because hostile forces still intervened in the city.
In a speech in Hong Kong, Xia, we must clearly see that the elements of chaos are still cruel and renew their various forms of soft resistance. ” He said.
The Social Democrats League is one of Hong Kong’s smaller groups known for its universal voting right and base causes, including more aggressive tactics and street protests, including a universal pension plan.
Chan told reporters, the party did not have the presence of the party to be disposed of, and in 2023 after many of the bank accounts were closed after the fund.
Although it is never as popular as the more moderate Democratic Party and the civilian party, it won three seats in the 2008 legislative elections – the best show.
Leung, the founder of LSD, was arrested 69, and in 2021, he was accused of conspiracy to demolish in 2021 in the ’47 Democrats’ case. He is still sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.
