The formal removal of the Professional Teachers’ Union from the official register marks far more than the demise of a fifty-year-old institution; it stands as a grim milestone in the rapid evaporation of Hong Kong’s civil society. Since the implementation of sweeping amendments to the Trade Unions Ordinance, the landscape for collective bargaining and worker representation has shifted from a vibrant ecosystem to a site of profound state intervention. According to the latest figures from the Labour Department, the spirit of association has all but stalled, with only five new unions registered in 2025—a twelve-year low that signals a near-total paralysis in grassroots organising.
This decline represents a staggering reversal of the “union boom” seen in 2021, when the city boasted a record 1,527 registered bodies. In the years since, nearly ten per cent of these organisations have vanished. The exodus was precipitated by the 2020 National Security Law, which triggered what many describe as a “political cleansing” of independent labour groups. The pressure intensified last year with the introduction of draconian legislative hurdles, including a lifetime ban on anyone convicted of national security offences from holding union office. Furthermore, the Registrar has been granted absolute discretion to block new registrations or mergers on security grounds, notably stripped of any meaningful mechanism for legal appeal.
The statistical reality of this “chilling effect” is stark. Between 2014 and 2024, the city typically saw dozens, if not hundreds, of new unions formed annually. The collapse to just five new entries in 2025, the lowest in 12 years suggests that the cost of participation has become prohibitively high. Simultaneously, existing unions are dissolving at an alarming rate; twenty-six were struck from the register last year alone, including the Liber Research Community Staff Association. Since the beginning of the crackdown in 2021, 275 unions have “disappeared” from the public record, with the average membership per union plummeting from over a thousand in 2019 to just 612 by the end of 2024, a collapse in density of some 67 per cent.
Rights advocates argue that these domestic shifts place the Hong Kong government in direct conflict with both the Basic Law and international standards. Article 27 of the city’s mini-constitution explicitly guarantees the freedom to form and join trade unions, a right mirrored in the International Labour Organisation’s Conventions No. 87 and 98. By weaponising administrative procedures to eliminate dissenting voices, critics contend that the authorities are systematically dismantling the autonomy of the labour movement in defiance of global covenants.
Despite the prevailing atmosphere of fear, the spirit of the grassroot organising on the ground remains anchored in the words of those currently silenced by the state. From his prison cell, where he has been held for over 1,500 days on charges of “inciting subversion,” the veteran labour leader Lee Cheuk-yan remains a symbol of this vanishing era. In a previous address to the court, he stated, “I firmly believe that only through the collective strength of workers and the organisation of independent unions can we reverse social injustice and change our destiny.” As the legal architecture of the city continues to tighten, the belief that trade unions serve as the final fortress for the vulnerable is being tested as never before in Hong Kong’s modern history.