The League of Social Democrats announced their disbandment on Sunday, June 29, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

This report was written by James Lee and published in Hong Kong Free Press on June 29, 2025. The following edited version is published as part of a content partnership agreement with Global Voices.

One of Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy groups, the League of Social Democrats (LSD), announced its disbandment on Sunday after 19 years. It came on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the 2020 Beijing-imposed security law, with the left-wing group citing “tremendous political pressure.”

The pro-democracy party announced its decision in a press invite sent out on June 27. “Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the League of Social Democrats. However, we will not survive to see that day and will announce our disbandment,” it read.

Speaking at a press conference on June 29, LSD chair Chan Po-ying said that she could not elaborate further on the reasons behind the decision.

HKFP has contacted the police for comment.

Founded in 2006, the LSD was known for advocating democratic reform and supporting the working class. It held seats in the Legislative Council and the District Councils before an electoral overhaul in 2021 effectively barred members of the opposition from standing.

‘Domino effect’

With its dissolution, the LSD joins the dozens of political parties, labour unions, and civil society groups that have disbanded since the security law was enacted.

Chan described the dissolution as part of a domino effect on June 29:

After the Democratic Party, it was the League of Social Democrats. After us, who’s next?

The last remaining League of Social Democrats members in front of a banner said: “I would rather be ashes than dust”. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

During the press conference, the members of the LSD sat in front of a banner that read: “I would rather be ashes than dust” — a quote attributed to American novelist Jack London. The league said in its press release:

Today, with deep sorrow, we announce that, in the face of immense political pressure and after careful deliberation, particularly with regard to the consequences for our members and comrades, we have made the difficult decision to disband.

Over these 19 years, we have endured hardships of internal disputes and the near-total imprisonment of our leadership, while witnessing the erosion of civil society, the fading of grassroots voices, the omnipresence of red lines, and the draconian suppression of dissent. Despite such adversities, LSD persisted — doing what little we could — just to remain true to our founding values and beliefs.

Now the road has narrowed beyond passage. We leave with heavy hearts, and with an ache in our conscience, knowing we will not be the last to fall. The terrain ahead is even more treacherous. LSD now closes its chapter in Hong Kong’s history of dissent. Yet, as members of this society, our spirit remains. Even as we step aside, we stand with those still struggling in the shadows.

LSD member and former convenor of the now-disbanded Civil Human Rights Front, Figo Chan, said in Cantonese:

The LSD advocated for marginalised communities, including migrant workers, refugees, the LGBTQ+ community, and labour issues. Even though the LSD has dissolved, I hope Hong Kong people will continue to give these communities their attention.

Dickson Chau, also of the LSD, recalled joining the party in 2021, hoping to contribute to a remaining left-wing voice in the city’s political sphere, “to hold the line as long as we could.”

“At least we’ve lasted until Jimmy Sham’s release,” he said.

Sham, who was arrested and charged with “subversion” along with 46 activists for participating in July 2020 pro-democracy primaries, was released on bail on January 7, 2025. He represented the LSD in the city’s district council before his arrest in January 2021.

At the press conference, Sham did not speak until prompted by a reporter. “The LSD was the first political party in Hong Kong to put the rights of sexual minorities on its agenda,” he said. “The LSD stood by the gay community in its darkest hour,” he added, as he became emotional.

Members of the party held roses — a symbol in socialist and labor movements representing human dignity — as they addressed the dozens of reporters crammed into the LSD’s office in a Chai Wan industrial unit, some of their voices struggling to reach the back of the room.

Dozens of groups disband

The demise of the league has made it the third major pro-democracy party to have met its end in recent years. The Civic Party folded in March 2024, and the Democratic Party, the city’s largest opposition group with a history of three decades, announced in February that it would begin steps to disband.

“Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, Chan Po-ying’s husband and former LSD chair, remains in prison serving six years and nine months for subversion under the 2020 security legislation. He is among 14 democrats seeking appeals against their convictions and sentences.

Chan Po-ying said that Leung’s appeal would still proceed, as would her own over an unauthorized fundraising case, despite the party’s dissolution.

Fernando Cheung, spokesperson of the Amnesty Hong Kong Overseas Section, said in a press release on June 29:

The organisation and its members have been continuously subjected to surveillance and harassment by the Hong Kong government, including repeated fines for setting up street booths; before June 4th, July 1st and other ‘sensitive dates’ as defined by authorities, members were summoned by the National Security Department for ‘reminders’ not to organise demonstrations, and were even subjected to targeted searches or arrests on those days.