Liberal Party (Hong Kong)
Political party in Hong Kong / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Liberal Party (LP) is a pro-Beijing, pro-business, and conservative[2] 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.
Liberal Party 自由黨 | |
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Leader | Tommy Cheung |
Chairman | Peter Shiu |
Vice-Chairmen | Nicholas Chan Alan Hoo Lee Chun-keung |
Founded | 6 June 1993; 30 years ago (1993-06-06) |
Preceded by | Co-operative Resources Centre |
Headquarters | 2/F New Hennessy Tower, 263 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong |
Youth wing | Liberal Party Youth Committee |
Membership (2017) | ~500 |
Ideology | |
Political position | Centre-right[1] |
Regional affiliation | Pro-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 Party | |||||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 自由黨 | ||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 自由党 | ||||||||||||
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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.
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. Tien's faction was forced out from the party when the central committee decided to scrap the titles of honorary chairperson in August 2022.