The Group of 89 or Business and Professional Group of the Basic Law Consultative Committee was a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...

political pressure group formed by the conservative business and professional elites led by tycoon Vincent Lo in the Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee (BLCC) and Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee (BLDC) during the drafting period of 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 a ...

in the late 1980s. Compared to the Group of 190 set up by the pro-democracy groups, it was on the conservative side of debates over the constitutional reform, the Hong Kong Basic Law and the future of Hong Kong.

History

It was sometimes confused with the Business and Professional Group of the Basic Law Consultative Committee which was founded in April 1986. It countered the Group of 190 which made up of more liberal-minded community representatives, social workers and professional in the BLCC. It disagreed with the relatively radical demands of the Group of 190 and accepted limited changes would ensure the "stability and prosperity" and "high degree of autonomy" of Hong Kong. The group had concentrated on influencing the drafting of the Basic Law and failed to reach a single consensus with the Group of 190 which led directly to the success of highly conservative Cha proposal come up by Louis Cha. The group also used its stronger financial base to lobby against extensive democratic change. It major contribution to debate over the first draft of Basic Law was a highly emotive and misleading video showing democratic activity as synonymous with rioting and anarchy. The group hired a public relations firm to make a video which, controversially and somewhat illogically, warned of the dangers of direct elections by showing, among other salutary examples, film clips of South Korean students throwing petrol bombs. The Business and Professional Group, part of the Group of 89, published a pamphlet entitled ''A Proposal for the Future Structure of the Hong Kong SAR Government''. The proposals favoured close limited on the franchise, the retention of an elite system of the government, the avoidance of party politics, and the maintenance of an independent judiciary. The group proposed a conservative constitution of electing the

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

and Legislative Council after 1997, a legislature with no more than 25% elected seats and chief executive elected by a 600-member electoral college, in contrary to the more progressive proposal of the pro-democratic members of the Consultative Committee. The proposals carried considerable weight as shown by its shadowy appearance in the 1987 Green Paper on Constitutional Reform. It also appeared in the first draft of the Basic Law as one of several proposals. After the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, the Group of 89 softened its stance slightly with respect to direct elections and reopened negotiations with the pro-democracy camp which led to the outcome of the "compromise model". However the compromise model divided the group between the one who favoured compromise and the ones who favoured the pro-Beijing model put forward by the

New Hong Kong Alliance The New Hong Kong Alliance (, abbreviated 新港盟; NHKA) was a pro-Beijing camp, pro-Beijing conservatism, conservative political organisation in Hong Kong in the 1990s mostly composed of businessmen and professionals. It was considered the more ...

, a political group led by

Lo Tak-shing Lo may refer to any of the following: Arts and entertainment * '' Lo!'', the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort * L.O., a fictional character in the Playhouse Disney show Happy Monster Band * ''Lo'' (film), a 2009 indep ...

emerged from the more conservative wing of the group. Vincent Lo, leader of the Business and Professional Group, bitterly opposed a democratic government before and after 1997, feared grassroots participation and fulminated endlessly about the dangers of direct elections. They argued that it would be naive to think that democracy would enable them to resist Beijing: no political system could stop Beijing if it wanted to interfere in Hong Kong's affairs. Only by maintaining the territory's prosperity and its economic value to China, they insisted, could Hong Kong prevent interference from the mainland. The core members of the business and professional group formed the Business and Professionals Federation of Hong Kong. Many of the members also founded the Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong on the eve of the first ever direct elections to the Legislative Council in 1991.

Members

* Veronica Cha * Chan Siu-kam * Chan Wing-kee * Chan Cheng-chun * Stephen Cheong * Mignonne Cheng * Cheng Yu-tung * Tommy Cheung * Choy Tak-ho * Lawrence Chu * Andrew Chuang * Chung Chi-yung * Chung King-fai * Patrick Charles Samuel Deveson * Fok Wah-pun * William Fung * Hari Harilela * Edward Ho * Raymond Ho *

Stanley Ho Stanley Ho Hung-sun (; 25 November 192126 May 2020) was a Hong Kong-Macau billionaire businessman. His original patrilineal surname was Bosman, which was later sinicized to 何 (Ho). He was the founder and chairman of SJM Holdings, which owns ...

* Hu Fa-kuang * Henrietta Ip * Ip Yeuk-lam * Lawrence Kadoorie * Kan Fook-yee * Kwok Man-cho * Philip Kwok * Lee Jung-kong * Peter Lee Chung-yin *

Leung Chun-ying Leung Chun-ying (; born 12 August 1954), also known as CY Leung, is a Hong Kong politician and chartered surveyor, who has served as Vice Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, vice-chairman of the National C ...

* Richard Li King-hang * Ronald Li * Liu Yong-ling *

* Vincent Lo * John Lok Hsiao-pei * Joseph Ma Ching-chung * Ian MacCallum * Michael Miles *

William Mong William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of En ...

* Steve Ng Siu-pang *

Poon Chung-kwong Professor Poon Chung-kwong, GBS, OBE, JP (, born 1940, Hong Kong) was the President of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 1991 to 2008. He received his secondary education at St. Paul's Co-educational College. Trained as a chemist, h ...

* Pun Chiu-yin * Pun Kwok-shing * A. de O. Sales * Seto Fai * Helmut Sohmen * Michael Naele Somerville * Shung Jih-chong * Samson Sun * Sun Sheng-tsang * Edwin Tao * Tang Hing-yee * Tang Hsiang-chien * James Tien * To Shui-moon * Jeffrey Tsang * Tsang Kwong-to * Jacob Tse Wai-chee * Annie Wu * Tso Wung-wai * Wong Kong-hon * Peter Wong * Philip Wong * Ronnie Wong * Wong Wan-tin * Peter J. Wrangham * Harold Wu * Raymond Wu * Veronica Wu * Xu Simin * Eddy Yau * Howard Young * Lincoln Yung * Zee Kwoh-kung * Shane Zee

References

{{Reflist Defunct political parties in Hong Kong

History

Members

See also

References