The think tank "Hong Kong Development Center" established in May 2019 by Tung Chee-hwa, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former chief executive, has been operating in a low-key manner for three years.
The director of the center, former Secretary for Justice Leung Oi-shih, confirmed the news that the center was shut down because it was "unnecessary".
Once commissioned Lei Dingming to estimate the number of anti-amendment demonstrations
The establishment of the Hong Kong Development Center in May 2019 coincides with a period of rapid growth in social reactions after the government proposed to amend the "Fugitive from Anti-Violence Ordinance" in February.
It is understood that the purpose of the establishment of the center was because the establishment camp expected the district council elections at the end of that year to be unstable.
However, the three-year-old Hong Kong Development Center has been quite low-key. Among them, a press conference was held after the anti-amendment parade on June 9, 2019, and Lei Dingming, the former director of the Department of Economics of the University of Science and Technology, was entrusted to estimate the number of parades. million people.
On the same day, the FDC announced that the number was 1.03 million, while the police said the peak number was 240,000.
A person familiar with the matter pointed out that under the new situation of the National Security Law, the electoral crisis of the establishment has dropped significantly, and the center no longer has any value, and its "closing" reflects the end of a political era.
Leung said that the Hong Kong Development Center "stops its operation without any special reason".
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"Stop functioning when you feel no need"
According to the financial statements of the center, from April 2020, Liang Aishi and senior media person Lu Hande will serve as directors.
When asked by "Hong Kong 01", Leung Aisi said that the center had stopped operating, but "there is no special reason" and "it stopped operating if it felt unnecessary."
According to the data, the center received a donation of 7 million yuan from May to December 2019, and another 5 million yuan in 2020, a total of 12 million yuan, and the total expenditure of the center in the two years was more than 13 million yuan.
In addition, the company changed its registered address on April 20 this year.
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