Pro-Beijing camp (Hong Kong)

The Pro-Beijing Camp, pro-Establishment Camp, pan-Establishment Camp (Chinese: 親北京派, 親建制派 or 建制派) is a segment of Hong Kong society that supports the policies and views of the People's Republic of China before and after the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.

It is also nicknamed the royalists or loyalists.

The term can be used to identify politicians, political parties and individuals. They are rivals of the pro-democracy camp.

History

Prior to handover

Some of the political groups, such as Foundation of Trade Unions and some members in the current Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) have a long history of strictly following the command of the PRC and loyal to the CCP since the colonial period even during the Cultural Revolution. Some of the members formerly participated in the 1967 riots against the colonial rule, and were labeled leftists.

After the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, a group of pro-Beijing businesspeople and elites formed several of political parties such as Liberal Democratic Federation and Progress Alliance, yet suffered great failures against the pro-democracy camp in 1991 and 1995 elections.

Since the Beijing government argued that the electoral reform by Chris Patten had violated the Joint Declaration, another Legislative Council of the new SAR government was founded in 1996 in control of the Pro-Beijing camp.

Post-1997

Since 1997, more new political groups have been formed. With the advantage of the functional constituency, Pro-Beijing camp have never lost being the majority in the LegCo in the collaboration of the DAB and the elitist party in colonial period, Liberal Party. On 1 July 2003, a peaceful crowd of 500,000 protested against the legislation of the controversial Article 23 of the Basic Law. James Tien, the leader of Liberal Party from the Executive Council and forced the government to delay the second reading of the legislation. The stance of DAB for the Article 23 was strongly criticised and led to their major loss in the Hong Kong district councils election, 2003.

Pro-Beijing camp members only share the political ideologies of being closer to Beijing, but vary on other issues within the context of Hong Kong.

Parties

• The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (10)
• Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (4)
• Liberal Party (3)
• New People's Party (1)
• Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions (1)
• New Century Forum
• Professional Forum
• Civil Force

See also

• PRC United Front strategy