Word game will neither save HKA nor its leaders

At their latest news conference held on Sunday, the so-called "Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China" announced that a special meeting of members would be held on Sept 25 to vote whether the organization would disband.

According to reports, their deputy head, Tonyee Chow Hang-tung, repeated that they wouldn't submit any materials to the local police of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which accused them of being foreign agents and legally required them to submit materials before Sept 7.

The "disbanding" claim is nothing but a word game. As early as August, there was information the HKA going to disband, but Chow and other leaders delayed that process under the excuse of their "procedures". Now they are playing the old trick again by saying that the presence of at least 20 member organizations and 75 percent of "yes" votes are needed to pass a disbanding resolution.

The fact is their number of member organizations could highly possibly not exceed 20. According to Hong Kong media, the HKA has ceased publishing the list of its members since 2014 and its claimed 200 member organizations have been dropping for long. At least half have ceased participation in it and become "zombies". At least 40 that participated in the name "LegCo member office" are no longer LegCo members. More have long exited but are still enlisted.

Now the HKA is only trying to prolong its last breath by another several weeks but the attempt will only be in vain. Their end day will ultimately come, but that will not be the end to the probe against their illegal activities.

The HKA has never concealed its standing point against the motherland and home city and their subversive nature is written in their founding documents. It was rather active in playing young people into cannon fodder in the 2019 anti-extradition riots, with the suspected use of foreign money behind that, which lead to the Hong Kong police's move.

It was given the opportunity to submit materials to prove itself, but it takes an uncooperative attitude by refusing. Either it has no material to prove itself innocent, or it tramples upon the law by refusing legal procedures.

In either case, it will get its due penalty. The Hong Kong police have already announced that those failing to submit materials might face a fine of HK$100,000 ($12,869) and a half-year custody, while the national security law has punitive clauses for the foreign agents acting against their own country.

The deadline will fall on Sept 7 and justice will be done.