In the second month of 2025, more groups decided to halt their activities in Hong Kong, a city once known for its vibrant civil society. The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) announced it would stop self-funded research and may even shut down, while the 30-year-old Democratic Party said it was taking steps to disband.
Hong Kong’s Democratic Party announces on February 20, 2025, that it will set up a taskforce to discuss the procedure for disbanding. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Meanwhile, the government proposed legal amendments to tighten trade union laws, citing national security reasons. We also learned that the verdict of the national security trial of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, which began last November, was expected to be handed down in October.
Following a two-hour meeting with the executive committee, the party’s chairperson Lo Kin-hei told journalists that the three-member task force would handle legal and financial matters relating to the dissolution and liquidation of the 30-year-old party.
He said that the committee had considered the “overall political environment” in making its decision.
The motion to dissolve the party would be subject to a vote by party members at a general meeting, Lo added. The 400-strong party will officially disband if more than three-quarters of party members attending the meeting support the motion.
Hong Kong’s Democratic Party announces on February 20, 2025, that it will set up a taskforce to discuss the procedure for disbanding. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
“Developing democracy in Hong Kong is always difficult, especially over the past few years,” he told journalists. “We see a lot of civil society groups or political parties disbanding or dissolving.”
Multiple members of the party have been jailed or detained over national security offences, including Helena Wong and Lam Cheuk-ting, as well as former chairs Wu Chi-wai and Albert Ho.
PORI will “suspend all its self-funded research activities indefinitely, including regular tracking surveys conducted since 1992, as well as all feature studies recently introduced,” the polling organisation said in a statement.
Hong Kong pollster Robert Chung (third from right) being led away from the office of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute in Wong Chuk Hang by police on January 13, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
“HKPORI will undergo a transformation or even close down,” while CEO Chung “welcomes interested parties to take over the Institute,” the statement said. “HKPORI has always been law-abiding, but in the current environment, it has to pause its promotion of scientific polling.”
Launched in July 2019, PORI is the successor of the University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Programme (POP), which was established in 1991.
Former lawmaker’s assets seizure
The Hong Kong government and former lawmaker Ted Hui exchanged a war of words in February.
Hui, who is now based in Australia and is wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police, said that the High Court had issued an order to confiscate assets held by his mother and wife in Hong Kong, as well as trust money held by a Hong Kong law firm that represented him in court.
His Facebook post also included a screenshot of the court’s confiscation order, made under the 2020 Beijing-imposed national security law. Hui said the order, dated February 17, was “absurd” and amounted to a “violation of human rights.”
Ted Hui in the UK. File Photo: May James/HKFP.
In response, Hong Kong’s government issued a statement, condemning “the unfounded smear and malicious attacks online.”
Hui transferred HK$2.5 million in personal assets as gifts to his mother and wife before, and after, he “absconded” from Hong Kong, according to the statement.
Hong Kong issued an arrest warrant against Hui in July 2023, after the former lawmaker fled the city in 2020.
A total of 19 people overseas, including Hui, are wanted by the Hong Kong police over national security offences. His passport was cancelled last December under the city’s homegrown security law.
Wanted activist’s 3 relatives questioned by police
Hong Kong police took in three relatives of ex-district councillor Carmen Lau, who is wanted for allegedly breaching the national security law, to aid an investigation.
The police said confirmed to HKFP that “the National Security Department of the Police Force brought two individuals to the police station to assist in the investigation.”
Activist Carmen Lau. File photo: Carmen Lau, via Facebook.
Lau, who currently lives in the US, according to her X account, said she had learned that “another distant family member” was taken in for “interrogation” by the national security police.
A member of the now-disbanded Civic Party, Lau was among six Hongkongers named in a fresh round of arrest warrants last December, with HK$1 million bounties offered for information leading to their arrests.
She stands accused of inciting secession and colluding with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.
Gov’t seeks to tighten labour union laws
The Hong Kong governmentproposed legislative amendments to permanently bar those convicted of national security offences from serving in labour unions and to require all foreign funding to be vetted by the authorities.
The changes to the Trade Unions Ordinance were “to better fulfil the duty of safeguarding national security” under the city’s two national security laws, the labour authorities said in a statement published on February 19.
National and Hong Kong flags decorate Tsim Sha Tsui, in Hong Kong, on October 1, 2023. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
The amendments would also “strengthen the statutory powers of the Registrar of Trade Unions over the supervision and regulation of trade unions,” the statement said.
Under the government’s proposal, trade unions shall not receive overseas funding “unless approved by the Registrar.’
The government also proposed empowering the Registrar of Trade Unions to bar those convicted of national security offences from serving as union officers or promoters for union applications, and to refuse applications for registering unions on national security grounds, with no possibility of appeal. The applicants also cannot appeal to the court against the decision.
The proposal will be tabled to the legislature in April.
Activist warned by social workers licensing body
Hong Kong activist Lau Ka-tung, whose social work licence was suspended for five years, received a warning from a licensing body in February that describing himself as a “social worker” or “former social worker” might violate the law.
In a letter sent to Lau, the Social Workers Registration Board said it noticed on February 4 that Lau called himself an “independent social worker handling social movement cases” on his personal Facebook account.
Hong Kong activist Lau Ka-tung. Photo: Facebook of Lau Ka-tung
The licensing body also pointed out that in a social media post, dated December 29, Lau described himself as a “former social worker.”
“Please pay attention, if a person whose name does not appear on the Register continues to use the title ‘independent social worker handling social movement cases,’ ‘former social worker,’ or any other relevant titles, the person might violate the Ordinance,” the letter read in Chinese.
Lau, who was jailed over an offence linked to a protest in 2019, announced on December 29 that the Social Workers Registration Board had suspended his social work licence for five years. It was the longest revocation yet under new laws aimed at protecting national security.
On February 7, Lai denied lying in court about not knowing about an international group critical of mainland China, despite having promoted the launch of the organisation in his now-shuttered Apple Daily tabloid five years ago.
On February 19, Lai denied condoning violent protest despite urging solidarity between demonstrators in 2019. The 77-year-old also told the court that his calls for amnesty were not at odds with his stance against violence.
Lai has pleaded not guilty to two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law, and a third of conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era law. He could be jailed for life if convicted.
Ho’s lawyer, Erik Shum, told three High Court judges on February 20 that the veteran pro-democracy politician intended to change his plea and was “in touch” with the prosecution. Ho, former chairperson of the Democratic Party, previously indicated that he would plead not guilty.
Former pro-democracy lawmaker Albert Ho is brought away by national security police from his home on March 21, 2023. Photo: Lea Mok/HKFP.
Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung – formerly of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China – were charged alongside the alliance itself with inciting subversion of state power under the Beijing-imposed national security law. They could be jailed for life if convicted.
Judge Alex Lee – one of the three judges presiding over the case – also further delayed the start of their trial to November due to scheduling conflicts with the national security trial of media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
Yu was accused of aiding the escape attempts of four Hongkongers who faced charges related to the 2019 protests and unrest and spent two years hiding in safehouses, according to local media.
The prosecution identified Yu as Ng’s boyfriend and said that the pair worked together as lookouts for the four fugitives and provided food for them.
Both had been charged with perverting the course of justice and denied bail.
Perverting the course of justice does not have a maximum punishment, with the courts given discretion to impose any imprisonment term or fine depending on the severity of the offence. Cases heard at District Court carry a maximum jail sentence of seven years.
Idaho Senator Jim Risch, chair of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen. File photo: US Gov’t.
Idaho Senator Jim Risch, chair of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a committee member, introduced the resolution to “condemn the Chinese government for its destruction of Hong Kong’s autonomy through the 2020 ‘national security law’ and the 2024 ‘Article 23 Ordinance,’” according to a statement.
In response, a Hong Kong government statement slammed the “despicable political manoeuvring and reckless clamouring.”
Arrests and prosecution figures
As of February 1, a total of 318 people had been arrested for “cases involving suspected acts or activities that endanger national security” since Beijing’s national security law came into effect, according to the Security Bureau. The number includes those arrested under Article 23, known officially as the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.
Of the 184 people and five companies who have so far been charged, 161 people and one company have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing.
Among them, 91 people and four companies have been charged under the national security law, with 76 convicted. Five people have been charged under Article 23, three of whom have been convicted.
HKFP has reached out to the Security Bureau for updated figures.
