It was founded 23 years ago and given a high-profile reception in the capital, but has the party lived up to the expectations of state leaders?
GARY CHEUNG
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 22 July, 2015, 3:38am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 22 July, 2015, 3:38am
DAB Legislator Ip Kwok-him. Photo: Dickson Lee
The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, the city's biggest pro-establishment party, starts its four-day visit to Beijing today.
Younger members of the 30-strong delegation may note it is their first visit to Beijing since 2006, but it is the ninth time the party has headed north since it was established 23 years ago.
The party paid its first visit 10 days after its founding on July 10, 1992, and enjoyed a high-profile reception. The Beijing-friendly party - known as the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong before its 2005 merger with the Hong Kong Progressive Alliance - was received by then president Jiang Zemin .
It spoke volumes about the close relationship between Beijing and the DAB, as well as state leaders' high hopes.
Has the party lived up those expectations? It had 56 members when it was founded, with Tam Yiu-chung its sole lawmaker. It now has nearly 28,000 members - compared with 700-plus for the Democratic Party - 13 lawmakers and 132 district councillors.
During their visit to Beijing in September 2006, then vice-president Zeng Qinghong told the party to strive to raise its internal quality while improving its external image. The consensus among party leaders at the time was it would need to continue recruiting young, professional and middle-class members to raise its credibility in order to meet state leaders' expectations.
Ip Kwok-him, a co-founder and veteran lawmaker, said currently about 2,000 party members were professionals or had a middle-class background. "In terms of absolute numbers, it's already way more than total membership of any single political party in Hong Kong," he said.
"When it comes to the number of lawmakers, district councillors and party members with professional backgrounds, we have lived up to state leaders' expectations. Of course, it's up to the judgment of the public if we have done a good job."
He said this trip to Beijing was arranged shortly after Starry Lee Wai-king, 41, was elected party chairwoman in April, passing the torch to the younger generation.
In an interview with the Post in 2004, DAB founding chairman Jasper Tsang Yok-sing said mainland officials were happy to see the DAB develop as an "election machine" that rivalled pan-democrats in direct elections.
But Tsang said at the time that the central government and pro-Beijing camp had a negative attitude towards party politics in Hong Kong, which was not conducive to the maturing of parties. Some academics believe Beijing's mentality remains unchanged, which could be an obstacle to the DAB's further development.
State leaders are expected to receive the delegation on Friday. The members will meet officials from the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the National Development and Reform Commission and United Front Work Department, and visit Zhongguancun - China's Silicon Valley.
Lee had said they would ask Beijing officials to set up a platform for regular dialogue with pan-democrats in the wake of the failure of political reform. Members who joined the botched walkout ahead of the reform vote on June 18 would also apologise to officials, she said.
During the DAB's visit to Beijing in December 1994, journalists covering the DAB's trip were given a pleasant surprise when Lu Ping , then director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, agreed to the party's request to allow them to stay in the conference room. It remains to be seen if another surprise awaits during this trip.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1842550/reality-check-hong-kongs-dab-delegation-heads-beijing-first
