The Liberal Party (LP) is a pro-Beijing, pro-business, and conservative political party in Hong Kong. Led by Tommy Cheung and chaired by Peter Shiu, it currently holds four seats in the Legislative Council, and holds eight 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.
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. 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.
Party beliefs Formed by businessmen and tycoons from various business sectors in Hong Kong, the Liberal Party is considered conservative and pro-business. In reference to the Liberal Party name, founding chairman Allen Lee said that "liberalism" would be the party's cherished ideal, with its values being free enterprise, equal opportunity, and individual freedom, but it expounds liberal conservative economic policies such as opposition to a minimum wage, collective bargaining and antitrust legislation. The Liberals also support limited government, low taxes, a high degree of economic freedom and uphold the interests of small and medium enterprises. Early on, the Liberal Party was close to the British administration with some of the party's founders being appointed to roles within the colonial government. However, the party shifted towards the pro-Beijing camp in the run-up to the handover of Hong Kong due to electoral reforms enacted by the British administration and the rise of the pro-democracy camp which the party claimed would threaten a smooth transition of power and economic relations with mainland China.
The party does not advocate welfare entitlements. Many of its members are from professionals, the merchant and business sectors and see preserving the current state of economic freedom as most advantageous for Hong Kong as a whole. The party adheres to social conservatism and opposes same-sex marriage. The party supported the functional constituency which represented the business interest that they should stay in the Legislative Council.
Despite being regarded as part of the pro-Beijing camp, the relations between Liberal Party and Hong Kong SAR government is not extremely friendly and the party has not shied away from criticising SAR administrations on some measures. Its chairman James Tien's resignation from the Executive Council in 2003 forced the government to back down from legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law, which ultimately accelerated the downfall of the Tung Chee-hwa administration. It has remained critical of the government of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying who won in the 2012 chief executive election, which the Liberal Party supported Leung's rival Henry Tang and cast blank votes instead of voting for Leung. On some issues, the Liberal Party has either adopted a neutral stance or has swung between supporting the pro-Beijing camp and voters, prompting dissatisfied responses from both sides although the party has generally positioned itself as supportive of the SAR government. After Carrie Lam was elected as Chief Executive, the party was accused of growing closer to the government and further from the founding members of the party and the leadership of James Tien. During the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests the party was divided on whether to support the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill, with former party leader Felix Chung arguing the SAR government should not rush into passing such a legislation while Tommy Cheung supported it. Others such as Tien argued for Lam to resign as Chief Executive. Due to its history of rebelling against the government, it is also seen as maverick in the pro-Beijing camp.
History
Background The Liberal Party was founded on the basis of a loose political grouping Co-operative Resources Centre (CRC) in 1993. The Co-operative Resources Centre was formed by the conservative faction in the Legislative Council (LegCo) as a counter-force to the new emerged pro-democratic United Democrats of Hong Kong who won a landslide victory in the first Legislative Council direct elections in 1991. Led by the Senior Unofficial Member Allen Lee and his fellow LegCo colleagues, Steven Poon, Selina Chow and Stephen Cheong, 12 legislators appointed by the British colonial government and 8 legislators indirectly elected by the functional constituencies aligned themselves and formed the CRC as a think tank, research unit and brain trust for a future political group. Four of the legislative council members, Allen Lee, Selina Chow, Rita Fan and Edward Ho had also been appointed members of the Executive Council (ExCo). This group of conservative elites shared a dislike for the United Democrats but lacked a common philosophy and ambition. Sir Sze Yuen Chung, the former senior unofficial member of the executive and legislative councils, suggested Lee and Poon to abandon any pretense of being above politics and form a proper political party with its belief, vision, discipline and platform.
Founding and Allen Lee chairmanship (1993–1998)
The Liberal Party was officially launched on 6 June 1993 with Allen Lee and Ronald Arculli as the first chairman and vice-chairman. The party was originally considered close to the British colonial administration in part due to its scepticism of expanding universal suffrage, but wishing to see a smooth transition of sovereignty over Hong Kong, the Liberal Party strongly opposed Governor Chris Patten's democratic reform as it was seen as a violation Sino-British Joint Declaration by the PRC government and began to align itself more to the pro-Beijing camp as a result. The Liberal Party offered an amendment to the reform package known as the "1994 Plan" which was supported by Beijing, but this was defeated in the legislative council.
The Liberal Party fielded candidates for the first time in the 1994 District Board elections, reaping 18 seats. In the 1995 Legislative Council election, Chairman Allen Lee successfully gained the party's first seat in the New Territories North-east direct election with nine other seats gained in the indirect functional constituency elections, focused on business interests. The party has maintained its unbalanced advantages in the business sector's indirect elections in functional constituencies while having few success in the popular direct elections in geographical constituencies. During the last years of British rule and early years of the SAR administration, the party remained one of the three largest in Legco, behind the pro-democratic Democratic Party and ahead of the Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB).
In January 1996, Allen Lee, Lau Wong-fat, Howard Young and Ngai Shiu-kit were invited by the Beijing government to the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong SAR. Fourteen Liberal Party members including Allen Lee, Ronald Arculli and James Tien subsequently became members of the 400-member Selection Committee which was responsible for electing the first chief executive of Hong Kong and the Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) in November. 10 members were elected to the Provisional Legislative Council and member Henry Tang was also appointed to the Provisional Executive Council by Chief Executive-elect Tung Chee-hwa in December 1996.
In May 1998, the Liberal Party participated in the first Legislative Council election after the handover, although the party won all of its 10 seats in the functional constituency and Election Committee indirect elections, Chairman Allen Lee lost in the New Territories East direct election. Lee decided not to run in 2000 and resigned as chairman in December. James Tien succeeded Lee as the new chairman and Arculli and Selina Chow were elected vice-chairmen.
James Tien chairmanship and 2003 crisis (1998–2003) In the 1999 District Council elections, the Liberal Party won 16 elected seats, with James Tien and Howard Young elected in the Peak and Bays Area. The party also had 9 appointed seats and 2 ex officio seats, including chairman of the Tuen Mun Rural Committee Lau Wong-fat as the ex officio member of the Tuen Mun District Council. In the 2000 Legislative Council elections, 7 Liberal Party legislators were elected, with Tommy Cheung winning in the new Catering functional constituency. In September 2000, Miriam Lau became party's vice-chairwoman after Ronald Arcullli announced that he would not run in the next legislative council elections and resigned as vice-chairman.