HONG KONG — The head of a political party calling for Hong Kong’s independence from China said Tuesday that government efforts to ban his group were a sign of eroding freedoms in the city.

Andy Chan, the founder of the Hong Kong National Party, spoke at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, an event that Chinese and Hong Kong government officials had condemned.

Calls for the club to cancel the event raised questions about the future of free speech in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous part of China where protections for civil liberties are far more robust than in the mainland.

Leung Chun-ying, who served as Hong Kong’s chief executive from 2012 to 2017, said the government, which owns the historic building the club rents in downtown Hong Kong, should not welcome a tenant that hosts a speaker who advocates separatism.