Hong Kong Observers

The Hong Kong Observers (Chinese: 香港觀察社) was a middle class-based pressure group in Hong Kong active during the 1970s and 80s. It was formed by a group of young Chinese professionals who were educated overseas and second-generation British expatriates discussing current issues on 7 July 1975.^[1][2] It hoped to "supervise and criticise the government through objective research, exerting pressure on the government by influencing public opinion."^[3]

On 12 December, 1980, an article written by Duncan Campbell in the New Statesman revealed a secret committee called the Standing Committee on Pressure Groups (SCOPG) was set up by the Hong Kong government to infiltrate pressure groups and monitor their activities. The greatest emphasis was placed on the Hong Kong Observers. Due to political pressure the committee ceased to exist in 1983.

The group's main concern in 1980s was the Sino-British negotiation over the sovereignty of Hong Kong. They called for Hong Kong people to express their views and conducted an opinion poll on Hong Kong future. In 1983 before Beijing and London began negotiation over Hong Kong’s future, Anna Wu led a group of legal confrères to Beijing and met with the then Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, demanding human rights, rule of law and constitutional reform be manifested in the Sino-British agreement.^[4] It also argued for longer transitional period, some British presence after 1997 and Hong Kong people's participation in drafting the future Hong Kong Basic Law.

Notable members of the group included former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying^[5] and political scientist Joseph Cheng who was the chairman between 1980 and 1982. Christine Loh, then chair of the group, and Anna Wu were both picked up by the then new Governor Chris Patten as the appointed member of the Legislative Council. Wu became a non-official member in the Executive Council and Loh was appointed as undersecretary for Environment Bureau by Leung Chun-ying in 2012.

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