The group aims to create a democratic body to represent Hong Kongers around the world and intends to hold an election late next year
A group of Hong Kong activists living in Canada, the United States and Britain say they will hold elections to a parliament-in-exile next year, aiming to create a democratic body to represent Hong Kongers around the globe as China continues to crack down on political freedoms in the former British colony.
The challenges of such a project are vast, not least in ensuring confidence in an election that will, owing to the dispersed nature of the Hong Kong diaspora, have to be conducted online, raising many security concerns. Organizers will not only have to protect their system from Chinese state-backed hackers and other potential malicious actors, but also reassure voters, especially those in Hong Kong itself, that their personal information will not be compromised.
Mr. Leung said he hoped the project could help to unite the increasingly large Hong Kong diaspora with those who remain in the city itself. Elections could also provide some legitimacy to figures like himself, said Mr. Leung, a former member of the city’s parliament – people who claim to speak on Hong Kong’s behalf but on increasingly tenuous grounds as the votes they once won fade into the past.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a historian of modern China at the University of California, Irvine, said exile communities are “often riven by fissures,” but added that if the parliament project is able to foster a spirit of collaboration rather than competition among various groups, there is potential to “maintain or even deepen a sense of Hong Kong identity abroad and keep those who have stayed in Hong Kong from feeling forgotten.
Mr. Leung acknowledged the Tibetan parliament-in-exile as a model for the Hong Kong project, but Tibet as an issue has struggled to gain traction in Washington and other capitals in recent years. The World Uyghur Congress, which claims to represent people in Xinjiang, was very marginal before a brutal crackdown by China in that region focused attention on the issue and pushed the body to a more prominent position.
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