Hong Kong’s limited pluralism and governance challenges

The recent political development of Hong Kong is marked by limited pluralism, as expressed in a Legislative Council (LegCo) election held on December 7 and the response to a deadly fire that killed 161 residents in the Wang Fuk Court apartment in Tai Po district.

The fire tragedy has prompted serious questions both over the professional ethics of some construction and renovation companies, which participated in bid-rigging and whose substandard construction materials are suspected of triggering the fire, and over the accountability of some government departments. Chief Executive John Lee quickly established an independent committee led by a judge to investigate the causes of the fire and to report within nine months.

In the LegCo election, which came days after the fire in Wang Fuk Court on November 26, the voter turnout was 31.9 percent, or 1,317,682 voters, compared with a turnout of 30.2 percent, or 1,350,680 voters, in the 2021 election.

The government chose not to postpone the election in light of the fire and the slight increase in voter turnout was attributable to the heavy mobilisation of civil servants and employees of pro-government and pro-Beijing organisations and groups.

Still, the turnout in 2021 and 2025 was no match for the 58.28 percent turnout in the 2016 LegCo elections, when the pan-democrats were still electorally active.

After the promulgation of the national security law in June 2020, and after the revamp of the composition of the LegCo to permit fewer directly elected seats (only 20 of the 90 seats are now directly elected in geographical constituencies compared with 30 of 75 seats previously), it is obvious many citizens have lost interest in either registering as voters or casting ballots. Most of the pan-democratic political parties have either disbanded themselves or ceased electoral participation.

The drop in voter turnout between 2016 and 2025 indicates the transformation of the political culture of Hong Kong people. Pre-2020, political culture was marked by activism and the existence of a vociferous civil society representing a broad ideological spectrum. From mid-2020, Hong Kong’s political culture has exhibited three particularities: political apathy or indifference; political activeness, especially among those citizens with a strong sense of identity with the Chinese Mainland; and political cynicism, as expressed in the views of many netizens on social media who tend to be critical of the government.

The 2025 LegCo election results show that traditionally mainstream democrats failed to participate in the electoral contest. The traditional flagship of the pan-democratic camp, the Democratic Party, decided to disband one week after the election – a signal of the end of the old era of political pluralism. The new political era of Hong Kong since mid-2020 is one of limited pluralism—in the sense that authorities allow only politically patriotic elites to participate in elections.

The traditionally pro-Beijing party, Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), secured 20 seats in the new LegCo after the 2025 election, with 10 of them directly elected in the ten geographical constituencies.  The pro-business and pro-Beijing Business and Professional Alliance (BPA) grasped eight seats in the LegCo, mostly through the Election Committee and functional constituencies. The pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions received seven seats, while the other pro-business Liberal Party acquired four seats. The pro-government and pro-Beijing Federation of Education Workers obtained four seats, while the New People’s Party led by a conservative former security secretary, Regina Ip, got three seats. The Roundtable led by Michael Tien, a moderate in the pro-Beijing camp, captured four seats.

The result pointed to the relative weakness of political parties in Hong Kong—most elected LegCo members are still non-party affiliated—and Beijing can count on a comfortable majority.

Still, from China’s united front perspective, securing the political support of the loose pro-government and pro-Beijing political coalition in Hong Kong’s LegCo may require mainland Chinese officials to expend more effort.

It was noteworthy that incumbent members of the legislature who were over 70 years old did not stand again. Rumors were rife that the central authorities persuaded them not to run and to give way to younger candidates so that there would be a rejuvenation of the LegCo. The LegCo has seen the entry of 40 new members, including the former Olympic fencing champion Vivian Kong, who succeeded in getting elected through the tourism functional constituency.

The new LegCo is expected to deal with two issues urgently. The first is the need to accelerate the development of the Northern Metropolis, especially as the central authorities expect Hong Kong to speed up its socio-economic integration with Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area.

The second relates to the scrutiny of bills and legislation concerning the construction and renovation industry, whose professional ethics have become the target of media criticism after the fire tragedy. The government is expected to draft and amend legislation to plug loopholes in the governance of the renovation industry, ranging from action against bid rigging to tightening of rules and regulations on the use of construction materials. It was reported that the quality of green mesh used by the renovation company in Wang Fuk Court was poor and flammable, while flammable Styrofoam was used to seal the windows.

Work practices must be addressed, including reports a few workers were smoking on site. Critics also say the alarm system did not work. Some residents told the media they had complained to the government, but there appeared to be no prompt action taken. These issues will be expected to be handled and covered by the report to be published by the independent investigation committee in late 2026.

The challenges posed by the Wang Fuk Court fire to the government include not only the need to plug the legal loopholes in the renovation industry, but also the coordination among government departments concerned.  The resettlement of the victims of the fire is a challenging task, because some residents of Wang Fuk Court demanded they be allowed to return to live in their homes, while some people said the government should demolish the buildings and construct new homes for victims. There will be hard choices for the government to make regarding post-disaster reconstruction and resettlement.  

Despite the new reality of limited pluralism, the public expects good governance. The not-too-high voter turnout in the post-2020 LegCo elections hides the fact that many Hong Kong people remain interested in the responsiveness of the government to the priorities of the community. After all, as long as the central authorities stress the importance of the people’s livelihood in Hong Kong, the local government is under the pressure to demonstrate it is listening to community concerns and is effective in coping with livelihood issues.

Professor Sonny Lo is an Honorary Professor with the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong