Demosisto (stylised Demosistō) () was a

pro-democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...

political organisation established on 10 April 2016 as a political party. It was led by

Joshua Wong Joshua Wong Chi-fung (; born 13 October 1996) is a Hong Kong activist and politician. He served as secretary-general of the pro-democracy party Demosistō until it disbanded following the implementation of the Hong Kong national security la ...

and Agnes Chow – former leaders of Scholarism, along with

Nathan Law Nathan Law Kwun-chung ( zh, link=no, t=羅冠聰; born 13 July 1993) is an activist and politician from Hong Kong. As a former student leader, he has been chairman of the Representative Council of the Lingnan University Students' Union (LUS ...

, former secretary-general of the

Hong Kong Federation of Students The Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS, or 學聯) is a student organisation founded in May 1958 by the student unions of four higher education institutions in Hong Kong. The inaugural committee had seven members representing the four sc ...

(HKFS). Scholarism and the HKFS were the two student activist groups which played an instrumental role in the 79-day

occupy protest The Occupy movement was an international populist Social movement, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to Social equality, social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed prim ...

s known as the

Umbrella Revolution A series of sit-in street protests, often called the Umbrella Revolution and sometimes used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, or Occupy Movement, occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014. The protests began after th ...

in 2014. Demosistō advocated a referendum to determine Hong Kong's sovereignty with the goal of obtaining autonomy after 2047, when the one country, two systems principle as promised in the

Sino-British Joint Declaration The Sino-British Joint Declaration is a treaty between the governments of the United Kingdom and China signed in 1984 setting the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance of the territory after ...

and the

Hong Kong Basic Law The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is a national law of China that serves as the organic law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Comprising nine chapters, 160 ...

is supposed to expire. It won a seat in the 2016 Legislative Council election with its 23-year-old chairman Nathan Law becoming the youngest candidate ever to be elected. In 2017, Law was disqualified from the Legislative Council over the oath-taking controversy and was imprisoned with Joshua Wong for the storming into the Civic Square during the Umbrella Revolution. After a series of disqualification of the Demosistō candidates, the party passed a resolution in January 2020 to abandon its advocacy for "democratic self-determination". After the passing of the

Hong Kong national security law The Hong Kong national security law, officially the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a piece of national security legislation concerning Hong Kong. It ...

, the party's leadership resigned from their offices and the party disbanded on 30 June 2020.

Beliefs

The following are the major missions of Demosistō: * Development of

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.people A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

to discuss their political views and the youth to develop political parties and civic movements. *

Equality Equality may refer to: Society * Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing ** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elit ...

and

justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

, trust of people, pluralist: Demosistō believes in the

Hong Kong people Hongkongers (), also known as Hong Kongers, Hong Kongese, Hongkongese, Hong Kong citizens and Hong Kong people, typically refers to residents of the territory of Hong Kong; although may also refer to others who were born and/or raised in the ...

and their ability to shape

into a pluralist city with the values of

and

equality Equality may refer to: Society * Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing ** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elit ...

. * Fight for democratic legislation to inspire civic movements:

Ivan Lam Ivan Lam Long-yin (, born 18 July 1994) is a student who together with Joshua Wong established the Hong Kong student activist group, Scholarism, in May 2011. In 2018, he replaced Nathan Law as the chairperson of Demosisto. In December 2020, Lam ...

, who succeeded

in May 2018 as a chairman, said the group will prepare to fight for democratic legislation in Hong Kong; for example, opposing Article 23 in the Basic Law (a controversial bill in Article 23 caused massive protests in 2003) and the proposed Anthem bill regarding the anthem of the People's Republic of China. In the same month, Demosistō changed their legal status from political party to political organisation, when its candidates were banned on election in the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Ko ...

Background

The name "Demosistō" is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

"demos" ("δῆμος", meaning "people", from which the English word "democracy" is derived) and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

"sisto" (meaning "to stand", from which English words such as "insist", "persist" and "resist" are derived). Literally translated as "people to stand" in English, it means "stand for democracy", or "stand for the people". The Chinese name means "the will of the people". The idea of forming Demosistō was inspired by Taiwan's

New Power Party The New Power Party (NPP) is a political party in Taiwan formed in early 2015. The party emerged from the Sunflower Student Movement in 2014, and advocates for universal human rights, civil and political liberties, as well as Taiwan indepe ...

which was formed by the Sunflower Movement leaders and fared well in the

2016 Taiwanese legislative election The 2016 Taiwanese legislative election was held, along with the presidential election, on 16 January 2016 for all 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led by Tsai Ing-wen, who also won the presidential elect ...

. In February 2016, core figures of the student activist group Scholarism – Joshua Wong, Oscar Lai and Agnes Chow – who played an instrumental role in the

2014 Hong Kong protests A series of sit-in street protests, often called the Umbrella Revolution and sometimes used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, or Occupy Movement, occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014. The protests began after t ...

, announced their plan of forming a new political party with other

Umbrella Movement The Umbrella Movement () was a political movement that emerged during the Hong Kong democracy protests of 2014. Its name arose from the use of umbrellas as a tool for passive resistance to the Hong Kong Police's use of pepper spray to dispe ...

leaders, including

, former secretary-general of the

(HKFS), to run in the September Legislative Council election. Scholarism officially ceased functioning on 20 March 2016 as the group disallowed any party affiliation.

History

Founding

The party was officially established on 10 April 2016 with former secretary-general of

as chairman, former spokesman of Scholarism Oscar Lai as vice-chairman, former convenor as

as secretary-general and former core member

Agnes Chow Ting Agnes Chow Ting ( zh, t=周庭, born 3 December 1996) is a Hong Kong politician and activism, social activist. She is a former member of the Standing Committee of Demosistō and former spokesperson of Scholarism. Her candidacy for the 2018 Hon ...

as deputy secretary. Founding party members included Shu Kei, Dean of Film and Television at the

Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) (Chinese: 香港演藝學院) is a provider of tertiary education in Hong Kong. Located near the north coast of Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, the main campus also functions as a venue for pe ...

as party's executive committee member, teacher Ng Mei-lan and Hong Kong Unison's Fermi Wong Wai-fun as member of the Kowloon East team. The Company Registry and police have yet to allow them to register as a company or society, as the registry had asked Demosistō to explain if it adheres to the Basic Law in pushing for Hong Kong's "self-determination" when the then-political party tried to register as a company. It was thus unable to set up its own bank account to raise funds as other parties and organisations did and had to rely instead on individual members' personal accounts. Joshua Wong also accused HSBC of exercising "political censorship" in rejecting his request to open a joint savings account to handle the business of his political party.

2016 Legislative Council election

Demosistō initially planned to field chairman Nathan Law in Hong Kong Island and vice-chairman Oscar Lai in

Kowloon East Kowloon East is the eastern part of Kowloon, covering the Wong Tai Sin District, Wong Tai Sin and Kwun Tong District, with Kowloon City District occasionally included. History The boundary of Kowloon East is not strictly defined and hence varies ...

. In July 2016, Oscar Lai decided to drop his candidacy in Kowloon East due to the lack of funding. The mailings of the campaign pamphlets of chairman Nathan Law, who was running in Hong Kong Island, were also delayed as the Hongkong Post had to seek legal advice from the justice department regarding Law's pamphlets mentioning phrases such as "self-determination". Law, 23, eventually became the youngest candidate ever to be elected to the Legislative Council after he received 50,818 votes, the second-highest among all candidates in the constituency. Demosistō's electoral allies, environmentalist

Eddie Chu Eddie Chu Hoi-dick (; born 29 September 1977) is a Hong Kong social activist and politician. He is a member of the Local Action and founder of the Land Justice League which are involved in conservation and environmental movements. He is kno ...

and university lecturer Lau Siu-lai who ran with a similar platform of "self-determination" also won seats in

New Territories West New Territories West (NTW) is the western part of Hong Kong's New Territories, covering Yuen Long, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan, Kwai Tsing and the Islands District. History Settlements in the area, except the Islands District, have been connected by the ...

and

Kowloon West Kowloon West is the western part of Kowloon, covering the Yau Tsim Mong and Sham Shui Po District, with Kowloon City District occasionally included. History The boundary of Kowloon West is not strictly defined and hence varies. While traditio ...

. In the Legislative Council, Demosistō and its allies joined the 27-strong pro-democracy caucus. In the 2017 Chief Executive election, the party and other radical democrats backed the

League of Social Democrats The League of Social Democrats (LSD) is a social democratic party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Chan Po-ying, wife of Leung Kwok-hung, it positions itself as the radical wing of the pro-democracy camp and stresses on "street actions" and "parliame ...

legislator

Leung Kwok-hung Leung Kwok-hung ( zh, t=梁國雄; born 27 March 1956), also known by his nickname "Long Hair" (), is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. He was a member of the Legislative Council, representing the New Territories East. A Trotskyi ...

to run against the two former government officials

Carrie Lam Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor ( Cheng; ; born 13 May 1957) is a retired Hong Kong politician who served as the 4th Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2017 to 2022. She served as Chief Secretary for Administration between 2012 and 2017 and Sec ...

and

John Tsang John Tsang Chun-wah, GBM, JP (; born Mui; born 21 April 1951) is a Hong Kong former senior civil servant and government official who was the longest-serving Financial Secretary in the Special Administrative Region period to date. Born in ...

, who was backed by the mainstream pro-democrats. Leung later dropped out after failing to grab enough signatures in an unofficial civil petition.

Disqualifications and imprisonment of members

In July 2017, Nathan Law was ousted from the Legislative Council over their manners at the oath-taking ceremony at the inaugural meeting with three other pro-democracy legislators, Leung Kwok-hung, Lau Siu-lai and

Yiu Chung-yim Edward Yiu Chung-yim (; born 19 July 1964) is a Hong Kong academic, scholar and former politician who is currently an associate professor of property at the University of Auckland Business School. He is a former member of the Legislative Counci ...

, losing the party's only elected representation. The controversy, triggered by two pro-independence legislators, Sixtus Leung and

Yau Wai-ching Regine Yau Wai-ching (; born 6 May 1991) is a Hong Kong former politician and former member of the localist group Youngspiration. She was elected to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong as a member for Kowloon West in the 2016 Legislative ...

Youngspiration Youngspiration is a localist political party in Hong Kong founded in 2015. It emerged after the 2014 Hong Kong protests (often dubbed as the "Umbrella Revolution") with an agenda of protection of Hong Kong people's interests and culture agains ...

resulted in the unprecedented legal actions by the government against elected legislators and the controversial interpretation of the Basic Law of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) which led to the disqualification of the six legislators as a result. On 17 August 2017, Nathan Law and Joshua Wong, the chairman and the secretary-general of Demosistō, were

imprisoned Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...

alongside former general secretary of the

Alex Chow Alex Chow Yong-kang (; born 18 August 1990) is a social activist from Hong Kong and current doctoral candidate in geography at the University of California, Berkeley.Civic Square which triggered the 79-day

. Agnes Chow, core member of Demosistō, announced her candidacy for the seat left vacant by Nathan Law in the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election. However, her candidacy was disqualified by the Electoral Affairs Commission of the basis that she "cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the

ong Kong Special Administrative Region Ong or ONG may refer to: Arts and media * Ong's Hat, a collaborative work of fiction * “Ong Ong”, a song by Blur from the album The Magic Whip Places * Ong, Nebraska, US, city * Ong's Hat, New Jersey, US, ghost town * Ong River, Odisha, ...

" In the 2019 District Council election, Demosistō secretary-general Joshua Wong, who planned to run for the South Horizons West constituency, received letters from Returning Officers asking if he was running on behalf of his party Demosistō and if he supported the notion of "self-determination" for Hong Kong. More than ten days after the nomination period, acting Returning Officer Laura Liang Aron, who replaced Dorothy Ma Chau Pui-fun who took indefinite sick leave, barred Joshua Wong from running due to political reasons, making Wong the only pro-democrat to be disqualified due to his political stance in the election. Aron issued a six-page ruling noting that Wong dropped his advocacy of the option of independence as "a compromise, instead of a genuine intention" as Wong referred to CCP general secretary

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...

's remarks on separatism as a "stern threat" and reason for him and Demosistō to give up the advocacy of independence. Wong said the Returning Officer's decision showed that the central government was rigging the election, which was expected to be a key test of public sentiment about the protest movement.

Property report

In April 2020, Demosistō published a report on property ownership by the

Hong Kong Liaison Office The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (; abbr. LOCPG or 香港中聯辦) is the agency that represents the Chinese Central People's Government in Hong Kong. It replaced the New Ch ...

. The report found more than 700 apartment units, along with other previously unreported property.

Abandoning "self-determination" advocacy and dissolution

After a series of disqualification of the Demosistō candidates, the party passed a resolution in January 2020 to abandon its advocacy for "democratic self-determination" on its platform, replacing with "democratic and progressive values". On 30 June 2020 hours after the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2,9 ...

passed the

, secretary-general Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, Jeffrey Ngo and former chairman Nathan Law announced they were withdrawing from Demosistō. Shortly after, the party announced it would disband, effective immediately.

Leadership

Chairperson

, 2016–2018 *

, 2018–2020

Vice-Chairperson

* Oscar Lai, 2016–2017 * Tiffany Yuen, 2017–2018 * Issac Cheng, 2019–2020

Secretaries-General

, 2016–2020

Deputy Secretaries-General

* Agnes Chow, 2016–2020 * Kwok Hei-yiu, 2017–2018 * Chan Kok-hin, 2018–2020

Electoral performance

Legislative Council elections

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Demosisto 2016 establishments in Hong Kong 2020 disestablishments in Hong Kong Liberal parties in Hong Kong Localist parties in Hong Kong Progressivism in China Political parties established in 2016 Political parties disestablished in 2020 Defunct political parties in Hong Kong