In July 6 2003, James Tien the leader of Liberal Party resigned from the Executive Council of Hong Kong and forced the government to delay the second reading of Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23. It was a sharp turn from his usual pro-government policy and is praised as heroic in temporarily relaxing a big conflict between the government and most Hongkongers.
However, at almost the same time, Liberal Party decided to change its policy from "all Legislation members should be directly elected in 2007" to "Hong Kong should become more democratic." The founder and ex-chair of Liberal Party, Li Peng Fei, decided to leave the party since he believes the change is a turnaway from the publics.
See also: Politics of Hong Kong