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Hong Kong politics
Hong KongPolitics

Exclusive | Pro-mainland Chinese financiers based in Hong Kong launch new Bauhinia Party aimed at reforming Legco, restraining ‘extremist forces’

  • The pro-establishment party, which plans to register 250,000 members, hopes to support campaigns in ‘elections at all levels’
  • One of three men listed as a founder in Companies Registry filings suggested turning Legco into a bicameral legislature in a recent speech

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A new party has been launched with an eye towards running for seats in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, a body it says is in need of reform. Photo: Nora Tam
Phila SiuandNatalie Wong

A group of pro-mainland Chinese executives working in Hong Kong at financial institutions such as Credit Suisse and Chi Capital have quietly founded a pro-establishment political party in a bid to contest elections and influence government policies, the Post has learned.

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Among the goals of the Bauhinia Party is advocating Legislative Council reform and offering candidates whose goal will be to restrain “extremist forces” in the legislature.

Filings to Hong Kong’s Companies Registry show the Bauhinia Party was founded in May by three people: Li Shan, Wong Chau-chi and Chen Jianwen, with Li and Wong indicating they were born on the mainland but became Hong Kong residents.

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Hong Kong’s Bauhinia Party leader seeks to set the record straight about its Beijing connections

Hong Kong’s Bauhinia Party leader seeks to set the record straight about its Beijing connections
The revelation comes less than a month after 15 opposition lawmakers quit en masse over a resolution by China’s top legislative body that led to the disqualification of four of their colleagues on the grounds they violated their oath or endangered national security.
Opposition figures said the unseatings marked the death of the “one country, two systems” principle guaranteeing the city a high degree of autonomy from Beijing.
Li, a delegate to the national committee of the mainland’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and a director of Credit Suisse’s board, said in a speech at Beijing’s Tsinghua University last month that he helped found the party out of concern over Hong Kong’s future following last year’s social unrest.
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The new party is being formed in response to what it said was Legco’s inability to carry through government plans. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
The new party is being formed in response to what it said was Legco’s inability to carry through government plans. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
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