Civic Party: Goodbye and good riddance

On Dec 5, the chairman of the Civic Party, Alan Leong Kah-kit, announced that the party will soon be wound up and placed in the hands of a liquidator. He said that none of the members was interested in joining its executive committee, and “that’s the end of it”.

Although the Civic Party has been around since 2006, few tears will be shed over its passing. In recent times it caused huge damage to Hong Kong, and the actions of its legislators did much to trigger the enactment of the National Security Law for Hong Kong in 2020. After the National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted a resolution whereby legislators who had violated their oath of office by endangering national security or by failing to uphold the Basic Law and honor their pledge of allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, three Civic Party legislators (and one other) forfeited their seats in the Legislative Council, on Nov 11, 2020.

They were the party’s then-leaders, Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu, Kwok Ka-ki, and Dennis Kwok Wing-hang (and Kenneth Leung Kai-cheong). Together with their colleagues, Jeremy Tam Man-ho and Tanya Chan Suk-chong, they had written to Republican and Democrat leaders in the US Congress on Sept 2, 2019, urging the “swift passage” of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the principal feature of which was a mechanism whereby sanctions could be imposed on Chinese officials. In August, moreover, Alvin Yeung and Dennis Kwok had toured the US, urging the ostracization of the Hong Kong Police Force, and supporting legislation that would facilitate the ending of Hong Kong’s preferential trading status with the United States.    

Although the demise of the Civic Party marks the end of an era, its policies in recent years have shown it has nothing of any worth to offer Hong Kong, let alone the country. Its brand of sinister maneuvering, coated with intellectual candy, misled many gullible people, some of whom, notably the young, have paid a heavy price

Within the Legislative Council, Dennis Kwok, egged on by his Civic Party colleagues, used his position as deputy chairman of the House Committee to paralyze the Council’s work for over seven months. He claimed that if he did not obstruct the Committee the government might seek to “railroad” through controversial laws, like national security legislation and the national anthem law, both of which Hong Kong was constitutionally obliged to enact. In consequence, he caused legislative gridlock, with 14 bills and 89 items of subsidiary legislation being blocked, many affecting people’s livelihoods. Although the deadlock was finally broken on May 18, 2020, Kwok and his party colleagues had successfully prevented the Council from discharging its Basic Law functions (Article 73), and he, more than any other Civic Party legislator, contributed to the situation in which the National Security Law became imperative.  

On April 10, 2021, it was reported that Kwok was being investigated by the authorities for possible misconduct in public office, although it turned out that he had already decamped to Canada some months previously. He has now become a partner in a New York law firm, and is also a senior research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, which says he “focuses on the legal and political risks emerging from China”.

Kwok has also forged ties to Hong Kong Watch, the propaganda outfit run by the serial fantasist, Benedict Rogers, and he is now a familiar figure on various anti-China platforms, where his efforts are greatly appreciated. Indeed, the New York Bar Association’s International Section recently announced that it was honoring him with its Award for Distinction in International Law and Affairs, given that he is a “tireless advocate for the rule of law”, which will come as a surprise to anybody who recalls his facilitating role in the mayhem of 2019-20.

Although Kwok got out just in time, many of his erstwhile colleagues are now facing the music. His former party colleagues, Alvin Yeung, Jeremy Tam, and Kwok Ka-ki, are all currently in custody. Having pleaded guilty in September, together with 26 other defendants, to a charge of conspiracy to commit subversion over their participation in unofficial primary elections in July 2020, they are now awaiting sentencing. Although the guilty pleas vindicate the decision of prosecutors to charge them, they also indicate the trio’s remorse for having sought to subvert the constitutional order, which is to their credit. Everybody can now see why the Civic Party, having spawned them and the likes of Dennis Kwok, can have no future in a political environment that prioritizes basic decency, good governance and love of country.

As for the Civic Party’s other leading lights, its co-founder, Tanya Chan Suk-chong, was convicted in 2019 of public nuisance and incitement over her role in Occupy Central in 2014 and sentenced to a suspended term of imprisonment of eight months, and has now relocated to Taiwan. Her colleague, Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, was convicted in separate trials of involvement in an unauthorized assembly and of failing to register a defense fund created to assist people accused of protest-related crimes during the insurrection, although she also escaped jail time, attracting a suspended sentence of imprisonment and a fine.

It is clear, therefore, that the Civic Party, which was ostensibly founded by people who wanted to promote social justice and greater democracy, completely lost its way over the years. The turning point was probably its decision in 2010 to link hands over universal suffrage with the League of Social Democrats, which sought to achieve its ends through “street actions” and “parliamentary struggles”, often involving violence. Its leaders included people like Leung Kwok-hung and Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit, and it is not easy to see how the Civic Party’s lawyers ever imagined they could make common cause with fanatics whose antics were so obviously antithetical to the rule of law, and their party never really recovered.

At some point, moreover, the Civic Party joined the Civil Human Rights Front, which specialized in mass protests. Once, therefore, the protests turned ugly, its legislators did their best to whitewash the violence of the fanatics, and to place the police force in the worst possible light. They even sought to block the funding the force required to protect the city, just as they had previously asked their US allies to end the supply of crowd control equipment and related materiel.        

Although it is not known for sure if the US was encouraging the Civic Party, and, if so, to what extent, it certainly sought to develop contacts with its members. In August 2020, for example, it was widely reported that its then consul general, Hanscom Smith, who was never happier than when dissing China, had met the party chairman, Alan Leong, at his law offices in Central. Although the participants did not disclose what was discussed in the 90-minute meeting, it quickly emerged that Alvin Yeung was also in attendance, and he was obviously not there to exchange pleasantries. Although the meeting was portrayed as “routine”, observers took this with a pinch of salt, not least because, in August 2019, when the insurrection was at its height, Smith’s political counsellor, Julie Eadeh, was discovered meeting covertly in a hotel with some of its leaders, including Joshua Wong Chi-fung and Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a tryst for which no satisfactory explanation was ever provided.

Even after the Civic Party’s key personnel had left office, the US still sought to cultivate them. In April 2021, for example, when Jeremy Tam, by then an ex-legislator facing a subversion charge, appeared in the Court of First Instance, it was revealed that he had received repeated invitations from the US consulate to meet up “for coffee”. In denying him bail, Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping noted that he had remained a person of interest to foreign powers, as demonstrated by the three invitations to “catch up” with Smith. This, she said, indicated there were “no sufficient grounds for believing that (Tam) will not continue to commit acts endangering national security if bail is granted.”  

Although the demise of the Civic Party marks the end of an era, its policies in recent years have shown it has nothing of any worth to offer Hong Kong, let alone the country. Its brand of sinister maneuvering, coated with intellectual candy, misled many gullible people, some of whom, notably the young, have paid a heavy price. Its chairman, Alan Leong, seems wholly resigned to the situation, saying “this is the time for the Civic Party to wind up,” and, for once, he is quite correct. It will, nonetheless, be fascinating to see if, in memory of his country’s old friend, the US Consul General, Gregory May, sends a wreath to the funeral.        

The author is a senior counsel and law professor, and was previously the director of public prosecutions of the Hong Kong SAR.  

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.