The Bauhinia Party says it wants to recruit 250, 000 members, or 3.3 per cent of Hong Kong’s population
A group of mainland-backed business people in Hong Kong recently formed a new political party, the Bauhinia Party, to run for next year’s legislative Council general election. It also claims to recruit 250,000 Hong Kong people (population 7.45m) as party members.
There has been much speculation about whether the bauhinia Party is a “branch” organisation in Beijing. How will it change Hong Kong’s political landscape? Deutsche Welle presents the party’s background and analysis.
- Are the Creators “new Hong Kong people”?
The Bauhinia Party was incorporated as a limited company in May, and the South China Morning Post reported that the three founders were “new Hong Kongers” who were born in Mainland China and later acquired Hong Kong residency. They were Western-educated, “returned” elites who work in the financial sector.
The three creators are: Li Shan, a member of the board of Credit Suisse Group; Huang Qiuzhi, chairman of China Broadcasting Holdings; and Chen Jianman, chairman of The board of Zhuoyue Holdings.
Li Shan, 57, who was born in Sichuan, has a PhD in economics from THE Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has worked in many global financial institutions and major Chinese banks, including China Development Bank, UBS, Bank of China International, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs. He is currently the CEO of Silk Road Financial Co., LTD and vice-chairman of the China Finance Association in Hong Kong.
Wong, 55, was born in Guangzhou and studied at The prestigious Diocesan Boys’ School in Hong Kong. He studied at Harvard and has worked for general Electric, McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and BNP Paribas. He is currently chairman and CEO of Silk Road Holdings.
In an interview with Sing Tao Daily, Mr Wong said the party had more than 20 founders, most of whom had grown up in Hong Kong, had overseas study experience and had links with the mainland. He stressed that the party was founded by “a group of people who love Hong Kong, have no separate background, respect for one country, two systems and uphold freedom, democracy and the rule of law”.
- Have a Communist background?
The bauhinia Party trio is unheard of among ordinary Hong Kongers. They are also relatively unknown in Hong Kong politics, but a closer look at their political background reveals close ties to the Communist Party, such as Li Shan, who is also a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and Chen Jianwen, who convenes the Inner Mongolia Committee’s Hong Kong district.
An investigation by Stance News found that Chen, chairman of the Board of directors of the China National Academy of Governance (Hong Kong) Alumni Association of Business And Industry (CAGA) for two consecutive terms, has been leading delegations to the mainland more frequently in recent years.
The report said CAGA, nominally a state organization but branded as the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, specializes in training Party and government leaders and cadres. It is a public institution directly under the CPC Central Committee at the ministerial level and also organizes national conditions seminars for Hong Kong civil servants and the business community.
Although it is a Hong Kong alumni association, its annual meetings are mostly held in Shenzhen, with officials from the Liaison Office of the Central Committee as guests. At a conference in June last year, which was at the beginning of the “anti-sending-off”, the Central Liaison Office sent the Minister of Economic Affairs Sun Xiangyi and deputy Inspector Yang Wenming to attend. Sun xiangyi asked the conference to “hold high the flag of patriotism and love Hong Kong” and support the government’s governance and police law enforcement.
- Coordinated by the Central Liaison Office?
The Bauhinia Party has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and has drawn attention to whether it is “affiliated” — that is, formed by the Central or Central Liaison office, or “illegitimate” — that is, formed outside Beijing but with their blessing.
Ching cheong Hong Kong senior media person in the news article speculated that the party is a “clique”, by as early as 3 years ago, an umbrella, the central and ZhongLianBan has discuss the problem of “xingang port of rule of man”, the last year to send in the central also refers to “the question of Hong Kong, is a national problem, it is your task, can’t let Hong Kong people to mainly take”, this indicates that the communist party of China (don’t rely on the colonies do one country, two systems, “Hong Kong people” and to organize “new era” of the “new” Hong Kong people.
However, two “direct” newspapers, Ta Kung Pao and Wen Hui Pao, were accused of deliberately ignoring the Bauhinia Party news.
Stance News also quoted politicians as saying the Bauhinia Party is not directly coordinated by the Liaison Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), but has close ties with Beijing, and it is estimated that Beijing intends to set up another faction outside the existing establishment sector, with the “New Hong Kong people” as the main force.
Yuan Michang, an honorary lecturer in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, also told Apple Daily that the Party is not “directly affiliated” and that, as far as he knows, its links with the mainland are limited for the time being, and that people who have ties to the mainland “have no knowledge of it at all”. ‘Many Hong Kong people have settled in Hong Kong and their interests were seriously affected by social events last year,’ he said. ‘So we need to form a voice for the party, and its likely supporters will be middle-of-the road professionals.’
- What are the party’s goals?
Li Shan, one of the founding members, wrote in the Hong Kong Daily last year that he proposed the establishment of a new political party of “Love the Country and love the Party” to “fundamentally change the seriously unbalanced political ecology in Hong Kong”. He stressed that the party must be a “firm defender” of “one country, two systems” and “unequivocal support for Hong Kong people to govern Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy”.
Sing tao daily reported that Chinese redbud core party politics is “for all the people of Hong Kong for the next 50 years, the pursuit of ‘one country, two systems” in one hundred, the party believes that in 2047 the time limit from all walks of life, also influence economic and trade activities, the contract contract, thus will “to the central for the next 50 years” as the first duty, described it as “anchored in Hong Kong’s social stability.
The party said it would set up a multi-dimensional operation platform to promote its policies, cover think tanks, administrative institutions, polling institutions, media networks and transnational communication platforms, and train and train talents for the SAR government to participate in major elections.
Ching described the party as the Chinese Communist Party’s “mass organisation” in Hong Kong in order to prepare for the full takeover of political institutions (executive, legislative, judicial, district Councils) and non-political institutions (a large number of statutory bodies, the Jockey Club, university boards, etc.).
In the article, he points out that in Communist party history, “liberation” of large cities has been preceded by the establishment of a large number of pro-Communist “mass organizations” in the city to keep pace with the PLA’s march, a task of the party’s “urban working Committee” (or “urban working Committee”). In the early 1950s, the Communist Party of China had not only an open “Working committee for Hong Kong and Macao”, but also an undisclosed “Urban working Committee for Hong Kong”, which was established as an “internal response” force for the liberation of Hong Kong. The article thinks that the establishment of Bauhinia Party is probably these internal forces.
- How to recruit 250,000 Party members?
The new Bauhinia Party says it wants to recruit 250,000 members, or 3.3 per cent of Hong Kong’s population. Yip Kwok-him, a dab member, says it is “a little far-fetched. It is easy to say”.
A number of overseas returnees and second-generation officials in Hong Kong, including senior executives of Chinese financial institutions and state-owned enterprises, have recently been invited to join the Bauhinia Party, Position News quoted people familiar with the matter as saying.
In an interview with Sing Tao Daily, Wong Chiu-chi, one of the founding members, said that recruiting 250,000 party members was “a vision”. He pointed out that both the Republican party and the Democratic Party in the US have 50 million members, and Hong Kong has more than 7 million members, so there must be enough members to represent the interests of Hong Kong people.
An “underground Member” of the COMMUNIST Party rises to the surface?
In a facebook post, Former legislator Andy Chu noted that the only way to build on this scale would be to “directly put the underground MEMBERS of the COMMUNIST Party lurking in Hong Kong on the surface and establish a ‘one-party’ political organization in the era of national security and law, on a level with the mainland”.
Underground members of the Communist Party, he says, have long been in all walks of life. “They have been quietly escorting the Party in a pro-government manner,” he says, “but they have allowed themselves to act as party members” and have established corresponding powers of organisation and leadership.
Cheng Xiang, a veteran journalist, wrote in The News that it is estimated that there are at least 400,000 underground Communists in Hong Kong. If the Communist Party carries out a strategy of “both overt and covert”, that is, some of them rise to the surface while others continue to “dive”, 250,000 of them will be included in the Bauhinia Party overnight.
- Fighting among the traditional establishment?
Chinese redbud party members in mainland China, is close to the Chinese communist party officials, and on the “ingredients” than the traditional system of Hong Kong root is MiaoHong sent members, is to “own”, have the comment refers to this implementation represents the communist party of China (” gai-tu-gui-liu policy “, to fully replace the mainland elite speak cantonese agents of local elites, cleaning the old Hong Kong and the traditional organizational system.
Wrote directly to senior media person ching, Beijing has long been a mistrust of the Hong Kong leftist groups, one is the Beijing party organization has always been to “our” wary, 2 it is Hong Kong agent sent no matter look from the image or ability is still busy not only, cannot be entrusts with an important task, “Chinese redbud party of traditional left-wing slapped a”.
Wang yongping, former director of the civil service bureau in AM730 column pointed out that the theory of individual quality, this batch of ast in mainland, mandarin and English power of expression, contacts, international vision, and career achievements, are better than most Hong Kong representative agent, “from the perspective of the central comprehensive governing Hong Kong, after removing the pro-democracy, involve a patriotic new force in elections, at all levels to balance local organizational system, and display the political pluralism, benefits only without risk”.
Media reports in Hong Kong show that existing members of the establishment also feel threatened and have reservations about the bauhinia Party. An interview by the South China Morning Post with James Tien, honorary chairman of the Liberal Party, IP Lau Suk-yee of the New Democratic Party, and an unnamed legislator from “the biggest establishment camp in Hong Kong” all played down the bauhinia Party’s prospects.
Tien believes that since Chinese companies in Hong Kong are already represented in legislative Council functional constituencies, Beijing may not easily replace the existing regime with a group of people from mainland China with a lower profile. The anonymous lawmaker puts it bluntly: “It’s hard to win seats without connections and regional experience.”
In addition, Mr Yip kwok-him of the DAB said that he had only recently learned of the establishment of the Bauhinia Party. The PARTY had not contacted the DAB. However, he believed that the two parties could compete in a healthy way, but it was too early to say whether they would cooperate.
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