HONG KONG: A prominent Hong Kong environmental group announced Friday it is disbanding, bringing an end to decades of activism aimed at protecting Victoria Harbour from large-scale reclamation.
The Society for Protection of the Harbour (SPH), long a leading voice in preserving the iconic waterfront, said it could no longer continue following recent legal changes that streamlined the government’s power to push forward reclamation projects.
Once a vibrant part of Hong Kong’s civil society, the city’s activist landscape has thinned considerably since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020, which led to the closure of numerous groups and the arrest or exile of hundreds of democracy advocates.
SPH, founded after the city’s 1997 handover to China, said a May amendment passed by the legislature effectively stripped public oversight from harbour development. In a legal letter to government leaders, the group argued that the new process “violates the fundamental principle of public law” by concentrating proposal, evaluation, and decision-making powers in the hands of the government alone. It received no reply.In June, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn told the pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po newspaper that the government had encountered “soft resistance” when introducing the bill—a phrase often used to describe opposition seen as ideologically misaligned with Beijing.
Linn cited an SPH social media post warning that the government’s plans could threaten the harbour’s integrity.
On Friday, the Development Bureau thanked SPH for its years of contributions to harbourfront issues but defended the legal changes, saying they had “strengthened regulations on large-scale reclamation” in the city.
In its farewell message, SPH expressed hope that Victoria Harbour—long a symbol of Hong Kong’s identity—would someday be declared a “National Treasure of China,” and preserved “for the benefit of present and future generations.” – AFP
