The view of Hong Kong Photo: VCG

The Civic Party, a major anti-government political group in Hong Kong, will officially disband in March 2024 as the liquidation process of the party has reached the final stage. Some experts said that such pro-West and anti-China political groups took the wrong path from the beginning, misjudged the situation and pushed themselves into a dead end. 

The party will officially disband next March, former chairman Alan Leong Kar-kit announced on Saturday, Hong Kong media the Standard newspaper  reported that same day.

The liquidator has also donated the party's remaining funds of some HK$97,000 ($12,409) to the Community Chest of Hong Kong, the Standard said. 

As a pro-West, anti-communist and anti-China, highly conceited, and elitist party, the Civic Party took the wrong path from the beginning, Lau Siu-kai, a consultant from the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies who is also a senior policy advisor, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Radical forces increasingly hijacked it and gradually turned it against the central government and local residents in Hong Kong. They misjudged the situation and believed that the central government would yield to the opposition as well as pressure from the US and the West, thus pushing themselves into a dead end, Lau said. 

"When the central government cracked down on them, they found that they lacked the support of the public as well as the US and the West and could not participate in Hong Kong's elections. Some party members were arrested or fled. It had suffered an embarrassing defeat and eventually had to disband," he said. 

After the electoral system reform, right now, only patriots are eligible to be elected or vetted, and likewise to be nominated as political appointees or officials, Chu Kar-kin, a veteran commentator based in the HKSAR and member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

"The Civic Party has previously demonstrated their obvious stance and political agenda. Such controversial positioning is shameful and will not attract young people who are interested in public services to join them. Further, not many politicians now dare to administer a rebellious group or a body receiving low recognition," Chu said. "The Civic Party is a negative asset now." 

"In such a system with law and order, the closure of the Civic Party is foreseeable and predictable. It may be the best outcome for them and the community," Chu said. 

The party, which has been in existence for over 17 years, announced its disbandment in May, as no member from the party was willing to take part in the Legislative Council (LegCo) election.

Founded in 2006, the Civic Party was positioned in its early stage as a party of the middle class and professionals. After more than a decade of evolution, during the black violence in 2019, some members repeatedly contacted and urged foreign countries to punish the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and participated in the organization of illegal "primaries" in 2020.

Since the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, a number of party members including former LegCo members such as Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu, Jeremy Jansen Tam Man-ho and Kwok Ka-ki had been prosecuted for involving the illegal "primaries." They later withdrew from the party and sent an open letter calling for the dissolution of the Civic Party and some other members withdrew from the party out of fear of being punished, local media Ta Kung Pao reported on Sunday.