The Standing Committee on Pressure Groups (SCOPG) was a secret committee set up in 1977[1][2][3] by the Hong Kong government to monitor the activities of pressure groups. The existence of this committee was first revealed in the New Statesman on 12 December 1980. The article, written by Duncan Campbell, asserted that any political group had been subjected to surveillance. Furthermore, the SCOPG had actively sought to undermine, co-opt or coerce eleven groups that were specifically targeted in a confidential report obtained by the paper. What was even more surprising, the SCOPG had been set up to infiltrate pressure groups. The greatest emphasis was placed on a group called the Hong Kong Observers.[4] Due to political pressure the committee ceased to exist in 1983.
- ^ Ng, Michael (2022). Political Censorship in British Hong Kong: Freedom of Expression and the Law (1842–1997). Law in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 151. doi:10.1017/9781108908580. ISBN 978-1-108-83002-7.
- ^ Sheridan, Michael (2021). The gate to China: a new history of the People's Republic & Hong Kong. London: William Collins. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-00-835622-4.
- ^ Legislative Council Hansard (10 May 1995). Available at: https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr94-95/english/lc_sitg/hansard/h950510.pdf (see page 3598)
- ^ Campbell, Duncan (12 December 1980). "Colonialism: A Secret Plan for Dictatorship" (PDF). New Statesman. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 March 2023.