When Martin Lee, leader of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party and the city’s best-known politician, spoke on the night Britain handed the colony to China, he pledged to fight for a democratic future.
“The flame of democracy has been ignited and is burning in the hearts of our people,” he said. “It will not be extinguished. Nay, it will only grow stronger.”
Nearly 28 years later, Lee, 86, is retired after being convicted of participating in an unlawful protest. Other leaders are in jail for subversion.
Last week the party finally decided to call it a day. At a meeting of its central committee, the remaining leadership voted to begin the process of winding the party up.
“Developing democracy in Hong Kong is always difficult and it’s especially difficult in the past few years,” its chairman, Lo Kin-hei said. “We see a lot of civil society groups or political parties disbanding or dissolving. This is not what we wanted to see.”