Youngspiration
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Youngspiration is a
localist Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identi ...
political party in
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 Delt ...
founded in 2015. It emerged after 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 ...
(often dubbed as the "Umbrella Revolution") with an agenda of protection of Hong Kong people's interests and culture against the interference of the Chinese government and advocated the "Hong Kong nation's
right to self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...
". The group wants a self-determination referendum in 2020 with the results effective in 2047, when China's "
one country, two systems "One country, two systems" is a constitutional principle of the People's Republic of China (PRC) describing the governance of the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. The constitutional principle was formulated in the early ...
" promise ends. As of 2016, the convenor of the group is
Baggio Leung Sixtus "Baggio" Leung Chung-hang (; born 7 August 1986) is a Hong Kong activist and politician. He is the convenor of Youngspiration, a localist political group in Hong Kong that leans towards Hong Kong independence, and is also leader and ...
. Youngspiration was part of the localist electoral alliance ALLinHK in the 2016 legislative election and won two seats in the direct elections.
Baggio Leung Sixtus "Baggio" Leung Chung-hang (; born 7 August 1986) is a Hong Kong activist and politician. He is the convenor of Youngspiration, a localist political group in Hong Kong that leans towards Hong Kong independence, and is also leader and ...
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 ...
, the two Youngspiration democratic elected legislators, triggered a controversy when they made pro-independence statements "Hong Kong is not China" during the oaths of office with insult words to China and were ejected from the Legislative Council by the court after the
National People's Congress Standing Committee The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPCSC) is the permanent body of the National People's Congress (NPC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is the highest organ of state po ...
(NPCSC) interpreted the Article 104 of the
Basic Law of Hong Kong 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 ar ...
, which specifically targeted the duo's conduct by "clarifying" the provision of the legislators to swear allegiance to Hong Kong as part of China when they take office.


History


Founding and activism

Youngspiration was established in January 2015 by a group of young people who had participated 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 ...
. Its founding convenor,
Baggio Leung Sixtus "Baggio" Leung Chung-hang (; born 7 August 1986) is a Hong Kong activist and politician. He is the convenor of Youngspiration, a localist political group in Hong Kong that leans towards Hong Kong independence, and is also leader and ...
, was the president of the
City University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is a world-class public research university located in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and became a fully accredited university in 1994. Currently, CityU is ...
Students' Union in 2007. Due to its background, it was often labelled as one of the "umbrella organisations". It adopted the emerging
localist Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identi ...
ideology, claiming to safeguard Hong Kong people's interests, freedoms and culture against the influx of mainland Chinese immigrants and tourists as well as the Chinese government's growing encroachment on the territory. It supported the restriction of Chinese immigrants and the empowerment of the Hong Kong government to regulate and manage the
one-way permit A People's Republic of China Permit for Proceeding to Hong Kong and Macao, or One-way Permit, is a document issued by the People's Republic of China allowing residents of mainland China to leave the mainland permanently to settle in Hong Kong or ...
scheme. In July 2015, Youngspiration organised a protest to demand deportation of an undocumented 12-year-old mainland boy Siu Yau-wai, who lived in Hong Kong for nine years without identification. Siu, whose parents are alive and well in mainland China, stayed with his grandparents after having overstayed his two-way permit nine years ago. Some called on the authorities to consider the case on a humanitarian basis and grant Siu permanent citizenship while Youngspiration worried that the case would open the floodgates to appeals from other illegal immigrants, asked for the boy to be repatriated. The boy and his grandmother were constantly harassed and eventually gave up and returned to his parents in mainland China.


2015/16 elections

In the 2015 District Council election, Youngspiration fielded nine candidates, in which three of them ran against the pan-democratic
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...
. Physician Kwong Po-yin defeated the then-incumbent Chairman of the
Kowloon City District Council The Kowloon City District Council () is the district council of Hong Kong, district council for the Kowloon City District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Kowloon City District Council currently consists of 25 members, of which th ...
Lau Wai Wing, becoming the only Youngspiration candidate elected as a member of the Kowloon City District Council, representing the Whampoa West constituency. Kwong later left Youngspiration in June 2016. Youngspiration also called for a primary with the pan-democractic
Civic Party The Civic Party (CP) is a pro-democracy liberal political party in Hong Kong. It is currently chaired by barrister Alan Leong. The party was formed in 2006 on the basis of the Basic Law Article 45 Concern Group, which was derived from the ...
for the
2016 New Territories East by-election The 2016 New Territories East by-election was held on 28 February 2016 after the incumbent Legislative Councillor Ronny Tong Ka-wah of New Territories East quit the Civic Party and resigned from the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), effect ...
after the incumbent ex-Civic legislator
Ronny Tong Ronny Tong Ka-wah, SC KC (; born 28 August 1950 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong Senior Counsel and politician. He is a current non-official member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong. He co-founded the Civic Party and was a member of the Legis ...
resigned, despite drawing differences between the pan-democracy camp and themselves. They withdrew after meeting with the Civic Party and endorsed the candidacy of
Edward Leung Edward Leung Tin-kei ( zh, t=梁天琦; born 2 June 1991) is a Hong Kong politician and activist. He is the former spokesperson of Hong Kong Indigenous, a localist group. He advocates Hong Kong independence, and coined the slogan "Liberate ...
of the
Hong Kong Indigenous Hong Kong Indigenous is a localist political group established in 2015. It is known for its hardline localist stances and militant methods of protesting. It has been actively involved in protests and engaged into violent clashes with police, ...
, who ran under the localist banner for the first time. In the 2016 Legislative Council election, Youngpsiration formed an electoral alliance named " ALLinHK" with five other Umbrella organisations, namely
Kowloon East Community Kowloon East Community is a localist political group formed in late 2014 in Hong Kong by a group of netizens on the online forum Hong Kong Golden Forum who were inspired by 2014 Occupy protests. It focuses on livelihood issues in Kwun Tong Di ...
,
Tin Shui Wai New Force Tin Shui Wai New Force () is a localist political group in Hong Kong established in late 2014 by a group of young people who had participated in the Umbrella Revolution. It claims to cater to the livelihood issues in Tin Shui Wai district. In th ...
, Cheung Sha Wan Community Establishment Power, Tsz Wan Shan Constructive Power and Tuen Mun Community. The alliance vowed to push forward the
right to self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...
of the "Hong Kong nation". Convenor Baggio Leung, who stated to stand as Edward Leung's substitute right before the
Electoral Affairs Commission The Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) is the body, established under the Electoral Affairs Commission Ordinance, that oversees electoral matters in Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Adminis ...
invalidated Edward's nomination, 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 ...
were elected, the latter being the youngest female member of the Legislative Council.


Disqualification from Legislative Council

Youngspiration's two legislators Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching were under fire when they inserted their own words into the official script of the swearing-in at the first session of the Legislative Council. They pronounced China as " Chee-na", the derogatory pronunciation used during the
Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
, calling the "People's Republic of China" the "people's re-fucking of Chee-na". Their oaths were rejected by the secretary-general of the Legislative Council. Subsequently, their qualification as legislators was challenged by the government in court. The
National People's Congress Standing Committee The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPCSC) is the permanent body of the National People's Congress (NPC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is the highest organ of state po ...
(NPCSC) intervened the court case by interpreting the Article 104 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong to "clarify" the provision of the legislators to swear allegiance to Hong Kong as part of China when they take office, stating that they would firmly oppose Hong Kong independence. As a consequence, the court vacated the two legislators' seats. Their seats in the Legislative Council were replaced by DAB's
Vincent Cheng Vincent Cheng Hoi-Chuen GBS OBE JP (, 16 July 1948 – 28 August 2022) was a Hong Kong banker who was HSBC Holdings plc. He was also chairman of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, the Asia-Pacific branch of HSBC and f ...
(
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 ...
) and
Neo Democrats The Neo Democrats was a pro-democracy, localist political group in Hong Kong composed mainly of former and disenchanted members of the Democratic Party New Territories East branch after the 2012 constitutional reform proposals. It had held ...
'
Gary Fan Gary Fan Kwok-wai (; born 30 October 1966) is a Hong Kong politician. He was the member of Legislative Council from 2012 to 2016 and from 2018 to 2019 after winning the 2018 by-election for New Territories East. He is also a former member of ...
( New Territories East) after the by-election which was held in March 2018.


Performance in elections


Legislative Council elections


District Council elections


See also

*
Kowloon East Community Kowloon East Community is a localist political group formed in late 2014 in Hong Kong by a group of netizens on the online forum Hong Kong Golden Forum who were inspired by 2014 Occupy protests. It focuses on livelihood issues in Kwun Tong Di ...
*
Tin Shui Wai New Force Tin Shui Wai New Force () is a localist political group in Hong Kong established in late 2014 by a group of young people who had participated in the Umbrella Revolution. It claims to cater to the livelihood issues in Tin Shui Wai district. In th ...
*
Localism in Hong Kong In Hong Kong, localism is a political movement centered on the preservation of the city's autonomy and local culture. The Hong Kong localist movement encompasses a variety of groups with different goals, but all of them oppose the perceived grow ...


References

{{Hong Kong political parties 2015 establishments in Hong Kong Localist parties in Hong Kong Political organisations based in Hong Kong