Political party in Hong Kong
Path of Democracy (Chinese: 民主思路) is a political group and think tank established in 2015 in Hong Kong. It is led by former Civic Party legislator Ronny Tong, who joined the Executive Council on 1 July 2017. Although officially unaligned with either the pro-Beijing camp or the pro-democracy camp, the group has been supportive of the policies and legislation put forward by the former,[2] and was considered by the media to be pro-Beijing by 2021.[3]
Background
Path of Democracy was founded by Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a barrister, the founding member of the pro-democracy Civic Party, and member of Legislative Council, who was disillusioned with pan-democrats' uncompromising approach toward Beijing on democratic reform.[4] Tong came up with his own moderate proposal in October 2013 as opposed to pan-democrats' Alliance for True Democracy proposal. Tong's proposal failed to be adopted by the government as the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) set limits on the electoral reform on 31 August 2014 which eventually led to the ultimate veto by the pan-democrats in the Legislative Council in June 2015, in which Tong voted against the proposal with the Civic Party. On 8 June 2015, before the vote, he set up a think tank Path of Democracy, composed of moderate democrats. After the vote, he announced his resignation from both the Civic Party and the Legislative Council.
The group was set up on 8 June 2015 with 18 founding members from a wide range of sectors, including political science professors Joseph Chan Cho-wai and Ray Yep Kin-man who would conduct research. Former Secretary for Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping, barrister Jat Sew-tong, Centaline founder Shih Wing-ching, businessman Allan Zeman were the four honorary advisers to the think tank. Scholars Cheung Chor-yung and Derek Yuen became the Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer of the group. Other members included former chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Foundation Alan Lung, economists Sung Yun-wing and Richard Wong and Southern District Councillor Paul Zimmerman.
The party joined the 2016 Legislative Council election,[5] but failed to get any of its candidates elected. 5 years later the party also did not manage to win a seat in the legislature. Ronny Tong, the founder and convenor, has been an Executive Council member of the government since 2017.
Beliefs
The group states that it seeks to maximise democratic development within the limits of the "one country, two systems" principle of Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong and a high degree of autonomy, by a moderate approach, which includes:
- To consolidate the majority of supporters of the democratic camp in the society;
- To promote a moderate political approach in a proactive manner, and to carve out new political horizon in the society;
- To formulate agenda and construct systematic political discourse;
- To establish new ideological dimensions in the politics, society, economics and culture of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region together with different stakeholders through research, dialogue and engagement.[6]
In September 2022, it lobbied the government to:[7]
- Enact laws against "fake news",
- Provide HK$5000/month in housing subsidies to mainland Chinese students who graduate from a Hong Kong university and wish to settle in Hong Kong,
- Offer "professional development courses" to Hong Kong teachers to be trained in mainland China, and
- To introduce Simplified Chinese in schools, verses the current Traditional Chinese
