HONG KONG — A tiny political party in Hong Kong has emerged as one of the city’s most discussed political topics thanks to government efforts to ban it and cancel a public talk by its founder.

The organization, the Hong Kong National Party, has called for the territory’s independence from China. It has no elected lawmakers and a small membership, but last month the authorities in Hong Kong moved to ban it under a colonial-era law that allows the prohibition of groups for reasons of national security, public safety and public order.

That move raised questions about growing restraints on political freedom in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese territory. As the government seeks to curtail people’s ability to advocate for ideas like greater autonomy or even independence, it has added to concerns about a deteriorating environment for free speech in Hong Kong.

Andy Chan, the founder of the party, which claims at most a few dozen members, said that the crackdown had given it an unexpected lift.