Hong Kong Progressive Alliance

The Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (HKPA) (zh-t|t=香港協進聯盟, abbreviated 港進聯) was a political party in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It was established in July 1994, and is composed of mainly businessmen and professionals. The party is considered a pro-business and pro-Beijing one. It merged with the Liberal Democratic Foundation (LDF) in 1997. The current Chairman is Ambrose Lau Hon-chuen.

The basic platform of the party is to defend "One country-two systems" and the Basic Law, the mini-constitution of Hong Kong. It advocates handling political and social issues in a moderate, pragmatic and harmonious manner, and develop democracy progressively. Stability, prosperity and progress is emphasized.

Party members maintain close relationships with Mainland China authorities. A number of them are deputies to the National People's Congress and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of the People's Republic of China.

The party won 5 seats in the 1998 election of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, of which 2 were from functional constituencies and 3 were from the election commission. In the 2000 LegCo election, the party won 4 seats (excluding Choy So-yuk who had joined the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) in the election). These included 1 seat each from geographical and function constituencies and 2 from election committee.

Decline

With the abolition of the election committee LegCo seats in 2004 election, the HKPA had an internal dispute on whether the party should send members for geographical direct elections. David Chu Yu-lin intended to run for a seat in New Territories East, and did start working on it, but he suddenly decided to quit in late July. Tang Siu-tong also declined to run for re-election.

After that the party decided to let Dr. Cho Wang Wai to run for the election in New Territories East only (though there's rumour that an independent candidate in New Territories West, Chow Ping-Tim, was actually a member of HKPA). However, some outsiders think that HKPA was insincere in participating in direct elections and the dispute shows the party came to a decline.

HKPA has merged with Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) since 16 February, 2005.

Members of the party in the Legislative Council, 2000-4

* Ambrose Lau Hon-chuen
* Hui Cheung-ching
* David Chu Yu-lin
* Tang Siu-tong
* Choy So-yuk (also a DAB member)

ee also

* Politics of Hong Kong
* List of political parties in Hong Kong

External links

* [http://www.hkpa.org.hk Hong Kong Progressive Alliance web site (Chinese only)]