HK First 香港本土 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Claudia Mo Gary Fan |
| Founded | 31 January 2013 |
| Dissolved | 13 November 2020 (2020-11-13) |
| Ideology | Localism (HK) Liberalism (HK) |
| Regional affiliation | Pro-democracy camp |
| Colours | Gold/Brown |
| Website | |
HK First onFacebook | |
| HK First | |||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 香港本土 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Hong Kong homeland | ||||||||||||
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HK First was alocalist political group inHong Kong. It was founded in 2013 by twopro-democracy members of theLegislative Council,Claudia Mo andGary Fan, to "defend the city's culture from 'mainlandisation'".[1]
The group was formed on 31 January 2013 by twopan-democratic legislators,Claudia Mo of theCivic Party andGary Fan of theNeo Democrats, who sympathised with the growinglocalist sentiment in Hong Kong. It claims to "help safeguard not only Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy, but also its lifestyle as guaranteed unchanged for 50 years underone country, two systems and stipulated in theBasic Law".[2]
Gary Fan ran in the2012 Legislative Council election on a "moderate" localist platform inNew Territories East while Claudia Mo ran inKowloon West with the slogan of "against mainlandisation". The two ran again in the2016 Legislative Council election, in which Fan lost his New Territories East seat, leaving the group with only one representative. In November 2016, Mo announced her resignation from the Civic Party, citing her differences with the party on localism and other issues. She said she would continue serving in the legislature as an "independent democrat" under the label "HK First".[3]
Gary Fan lost his seat in December 2019 after he was ruled to be unduly elected in theby-election.[4] Claudia Mo joined the rest of the pro-democracy colleagues andresigned from the Legislative Council in November 2020,[5] effective 13 November. They were arrested in January 2021 and convicted of "subversion" in theHong Kong 47 trial for their participation in theprimaries. Fan said during the court hearing that he would no longer participate in politics. They were released from jail in April 2025.[6]
The group advocates for the protection of cultural aspects of the Hong Kong lifestyle, including the use oftraditional Chinese characters,Cantonese and traditional phonetic translation between English and Cantonese, which many localists deemed to be under threat from mainland China'ssimplified Chinese,Mandarin Chinese and its phonetic translation.
In contrast to many other localist organisations, the group does not advocate forHong Kong independence.[2]
It also opposed the influx of mainland tourists,grey goods traders, Mainland schoolchildren who were seen as taken away the quota of the local students, panic-buying of baby formula and various social issues in related toHong Kong–Mainland conflict. It opposed the government'sIndividual Visit Scheme to limit the number of mainland tourists.[7] They co-sponsored a controversial ad which claimed that reducing immigration would help the people of Hong Kong to get to the bottom of the housing problem, while rejecting claims of bias or discrimination against mainlanders,[8] despite condemnation from theEqual Opportunities Commission.[9] Fan later introduced a motion on adhering to the need to "put Hong Kong people first" in formulating policies, but the motion was ultimately defeated.[10]
