Third Side (Chinese: 新思維; lit. 'new thinking') is a political party in Hong Kong which claims to offer a "third road" to democracy, positioned between the pro-democracy camp and the pro-Beijing camp. It is led by Tik Chi-yuen, who was a co-founder and longtime member of the Democratic Party until his expulsion in 2015 for promoting political reforms proposed by the Chinese central government.[1]
Third Side | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairman | Tik Chi-yuen |
| Vice-Chairmen |
|
| Director General | Chan Ka-wai |
| Founded | 3 January 2016 |
| Headquarters | 26/F, Wo Fu Commercial Building, 574 Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
| Membership (2016) |  68 |
| Ideology | Centrism |
| Political position | Centrist camp |
| Colours | Dark green |
| Executive Council | 0 / 33
|
| Legislative Council | 1 / 90
|
| District Councils | 0 / 470
|
| Website | |
| thirdside | |
| Third Side | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 新思維 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 新思维 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | new thinking | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
History
editThird Side is led by chairman Tik Chi-yuen, the former vice-chairman of the Democratic Party, and vice-convenor Wong Sing-chi, a former Democrat legislator. Wong was expelled by the Democrats in July 2015 for urging legislators to accept the Beijing-decreed political reform package. Tik subsequently quit in September, citing differences on the pursuit of democracy.[2]
The party's 20-member preparatory committee included former Democrats Chan Ka-wai and Chow Yick-hay, and Centaline Property Agency co-founder Shih Wing-ching, who was also from Path of Democracy, the think tank set up by fellow moderate and former Civic Party legislator Ronny Tong Ka-wah.[1] Others included Hung Fook Tong executive director Ricky Szeto Wing-fu and Shue Yan University associate professor Lee Shu-kam. The party was inaugurated at a 7 January ceremony.[2]
Wong Sing-chi was a candidate in the legislative by-election in early 2016, but lost the race by coming in the fifth place.
After the by-election, the party once considered filling candidates in the 2016 legislative election.[1] And yet, on 22 July 2016, ten members of the Third Side quit which included two vice-chairmen Marcus Liu Tim-shing and Ben Kuen Ping-yiu, who were all part of the team that was going to run in the New Territories East constituency. They stated that the party had fallen short of their expectation to forge a new brand of politics perched between the two traditional blocs. The party argued that their departure was due to the party's decision not to field any candidates in New Territories East in the upcoming election.[3] The party failed to win any seat in the election.
On 19 December 2017, Macau denied entry to Third Side member Wong Chun-long for security reasons despite inviting him to attend a conference on Macau's finance and information technology sectors.[4]
In December 2021, it was reported that Wong Chun-long, Third Side candidate in the New Territories North West constituency in that month's LegCo election, had posed as a young girl on online discussion forum LIHKG. Wong started a political debate under the name "Little Sister" while claiming to be part of the "yellow" (pro-democracy) camp.[5]
Stances
editIn initial stage, Third Side was considered as a "middle-of-the-road" political group between the pro-democracy camp and pro-Beijing camp. and had a direct competition with pro-democracy Alvin Yeung and pro-Beijing Holden Chow in the 2016 New Territories East by-election. However, during 2016 Hong Kong legislative election, it was reported that pro-Beijing camp once considered allocating votes to Tik Chi-yuen, who was running in the election in the Kowloon West constituency in the hope of defeating pro-democracy and localist candidates.[6]
In the November 2018 Kowloon West by-election, Tik endorsed pro-Beijing candidate Chan Hoi-yan together with other pro-Beijing politicians.[7][8]
Third Side is considered the sole non-establishment party in the Legislative Council (LegCo) following the 2021 legislative election, in which Tik was elected to the Social Welfare constituency.[9] Tik did not join the other 89 LegCo member-elects in calling for an investigation into the pro-democracy media outlet Stand News after police raided its offices on 29 December 2021.[10] However, on 16 February 2022, Tik, along with the other 89 members of the LegCo, made a statement of gratitude to Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping for his "guidance" in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong.[11][12]
Performance in elections
editLegislative council elections
edit| Election | Number of popular votes |
% of popular votes |
GC seats |
FC seats |
EC seats |
Total seats | /− | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 13,461 | 0.62 | 0 | 0 | 0 / 70
|
|
||
| 2021 |  4,066
|
0.31
|
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 / 90
|
 1
|
9th |
District Council elections
edit| Election | Number of popular votes |
% of popular votes |
Total elected seats |
/− |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2,011 | 0.14 | 0 / 431
|
0 |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c Ng, Kang-chung (29 September 2015). "New Hong Kong political party Third Side prepares to test its moderate stance in Legco elections". South China Morning Post.
- ^ a b Siu, Jasmine (29 September 2015). "Ex-Dems set up new party". The Standard.
- ^ "We quit: 10 members from middle-of-the-road political party Third Side leave due to differences". South China Morning Post. 22 July 2016.
- ^ Cheng, Kris (19 December 2017). "Macau denies entry to member of centrist Hong Kong party, citing 'intention' to jeopardise public security".
- ^ "Politician Caspar Wong posed as young girl when posting on online forum". The Standard. 7 December 2021.
- ^ "狄志遠非親生仔 建制派拒過票 - 東方日報". orientaldaily.on.cc. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
- ^ "與建制同台撐陳凱欣 憶共商教育 狄志遠：你嘅表情感動我 中間選民有個好選擇 | 立場報道 | 立場新聞". 立場新聞 Stand News. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
- ^ Pao, Ming. "陳凱欣造勢 老公邱文華「復出」 狄志遠撐場：與陳認識不深". www.mingpaocanada.com. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
- ^ "【立選結果】社福界狄志遠成「1比89」：唔好睇死我一把聲音 | 獨媒報導". 獨立媒體. 20 December 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ 鄭寶生 (30 December 2021). "立場停運｜89名候任立法會議員發聲明要求深入調查 獨欠狄志遠". 香港01 (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ "立法會全體議員聲明：感謝習近平總書記作出重要指示". 獨立媒體 (in Chinese). 17 February 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
- ^ "立法會全體議員：在祖國強大後盾支持下 香港一定可以戰勝疫情". 文匯報 (in Chinese). 16 February 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2022.