CIVIC PARTY: SEEKING FUNDS AND SUPPORT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HONG KONG 001744

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP AND EAP/CM
NSC FOR DENNIS WILDER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/26/2031
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL HK CH
SUBJECT: CIVIC PARTY: SEEKING FUNDS AND SUPPORT

REF: A. HONG KONG 1072


B. HONG KONG 1417

C. HONG KONG 1512

Classified By: Acting E/P Chief Jeff Zaiser. Reasons: 1.4(b,d).


1. (C) Summary: More than one month after its inauguration as
Hong Kong's newest political party, the Civic Party (CP)
continues to promote itself and its platform to the public
and to seek financial support for its activities. On April
22, CP Chairman Kuan Hsin-chi and party leader Audrey Eu
mingled with shoppers in Hong Kong's busy Causeway Bay
district as they collected contributions from pedestrians and
burnished their grassroots credentials. One of the party's
first tasks is to define itself and rebut the notion that it
will be solely a "middle class" party. With a current
membership of just one hundred founding members, the CP is
still relatively small, but hopes to expand its influence in
the political process and eventually become a "governing
party."


2. (C) One major challenge facing the new party is its
relationship with Beijing. Though the CP wants to establish
itself foremost as a party grounded in Hong Kong affairs and
committed to the promotion of democracy, it also is acutely
aware of the importance of improving its relationship with
the Central Government. Through its deliberate omission of
the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown from its party manifesto, the CP
has paved the way for a dialogue with Beijing, but to date
has had only low-level contacts. The CP also must overcome
Beijing's concern regarding the role of Article 45 Concern
Group lawmakers in the legislature's rejection of the HKG's
constitutional reform proposals in December 2005, as well as
its rumored relationship with former Chief Secretary Anson
Chan. Separately, two democratic contacts told us that
Beijing had asked local tycoons to withhold donations to the
Civic Party until after Donald Tsang has been successfully
re-elected Chief Executive in 2007. While the CP and the
Democratic Party have announced a coordinated strategy on the
Chief Executive election, the two parties will go head to
head for democratic votes in the District Council and
Legislative Council elections. End Summary.

Mingling With the People
--------------


3. (C) The April 22 appearance on the streets of Hong Kong by
the two leaders of Hong Kong's newest pro-democracy party,
Chairman Kuan Hsin-chi and party leader Audrey Eu, was not to
demonstrate for accelerated implementation of universal
suffrage. Rather, Kuan and Eu sought to address the two most
urgent needs of the newly formed party, funding and
grassroots appeal. Mingling with shoppers in Hong Kong's
busy Causeway Bay district, Eu banged a drum while Kuan
played a gong as they collected contributions from
pedestrians and generally sought to drum up support among the
voters.

A Middle Class Party?
--------------


4. (C) More than one month after its inauguration (ref a),CP
leaders are striving to meet these two needs as they continue
to introduce the party and its platform to the public. In
that regard, one of their first tasks has been to rebut the
notion that the CP will be solely a "middle class" party, not
particularly interested in grassroots issues. On March 26
Eu, who also is a member of the Legislative Council (Legco)
and a barrister, responded to this allegation on a radio
program, saying, "We call ourselves the Civic Party because
we believe in civil society...we believe that it is wrong for
a political party to pitch one sector against the other.
Just as it is wrong to care only for the middle class, it is
equally wrong to work only for the grass roots." Eu
revisited this theme on April 13, acknowledging that while
most CP members are lawyers and professionals, "they
originated from the grassroots." (Comment: Perhaps in an
effort to burnish its grassroots credentials, the CP has
recruited Fernando Cheung, the legislator representing the
social welfare functional constituency, who will serve as one
of the party's two Vice Chairman. End Comment.)


5. (C) According to Executive Council member Anthony Cheung,
however, catering to the middle class may actually be one of
the CP's strengths. Cheung told poloff recently that one
weakness of Hong Kong's Democratic Party (DP) has been its
failure to address the needs of the middle class while
simultaneously catering to the sometimes conflicting demands
of its grassroots activists. With an alternative party now

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available to pro-democracy and middle class Hong Kongers,
Cheung predicted that many professionals would support the CP
rather than the DP.

And a Governing Party?
--------------


6. (C) With a current membership of just one hundred founding
members, six of whom are Legco members, the CP is still
relatively small, but it hopes to expand its influence in the
political process and eventually become a "governing party."
In this regard, it recently supported Liberal Party Chairman
James Tien's proposal to amend an election bill under
discussion in the Legco to allow the winning Chief Executive
candidate to retain his/her political party affiliation.
Tien's proposal, not expected to pass, would strengthen the
role of parties in politics and establish a "ruling party"
(ref b).

Relationship with Beijing
--------------


7. (C) Through its deliberate omission of the 1989 Tiananmen
crackdown in its party manifesto, the CP has strategically
differentiated itself from the DP and, more importantly,
paved the way for an improved relationship with Beijing.
(Note: The DP manifesto calls on the Central Government to
"overrule its position on the event (1989 Tiananmen
crackdown)." It is unlikely that Beijing will initiate a
constructive dialogue with the DP while this statement
remains in the manifesto. End Note.) On April 12, CP
Chairman Kuan explained to E/P Chief and poloff that it was
important for the party to establish itself foremost as a
party grounded in Hong Kong affairs and committed to the
promotion of democracy in Hong Kong. Kuan rejected
suggestions that his party was trying to avoid political
baggage by not including a call for the reversal of the June
4 verdict. Instead, he insisted that the verdict should be
left for history to decide, and that the DP's focus on
Tiananmen had diverted efforts to develop democracy in Hong
Kong.


8. (C) Kuan said his party was open to dialogue with the
central government, although to date they have had only
low-level contacts. Executive Council member and DP
co-founder Anthony Cheung beleves that, while Beijing had
been "grooming" thefour Article 45 Concern Group lawmakers
for a roe as reliable partners in Hong Kong's governance,the new CP will need to further develop its relatinship with
Beijing to overcome their concerns ovr the lawmakers' role
in the December 2005 rejecion of Chief Executive Tsang's
constiutional reform proposals. Cheung also said the
Central Government has questioned the motives of the A45,
both in the media and privately. Similarly, on April 6,
Liberal Party founder and political commentator Allen Lee
said that the CP represented "a new political force" and "a
new political hope" of which Beijing would be "very wary."


9. (C) Another possible reason for Beijing's uneasiness
regarding the CP is speculation about the party's
relationship with former Chief Secretary Anson Chan. Rumors
that A45 members urged Chan to participate in last December's
pro-democracy rally continue to swirl in Hong Kong. Mandy
Tam told us, unequivocally, that no one from the CP had asked
Chan to join the rally. Beijing's real concern, however, may
be that Chan might contest the 2007 Chief Executive election;
although her chances of victory would be minimal without
Beijing's blessing, Chan remains extremely popular in Hong
Kong and could siphon votes away from Donald Tsang. The
"Sing Tao Daily" recently contended that if Chan ran, she
would be the democrats' best chance of garnering more than
one hundred Election Committee votes.

Funding
--------------


10. (C) In an April 20 announcement of its new fund-raising
campaign, the CP said that to date it had raised HKD 1.8
million (USD 233,000) but needed an additional HKD 10 million
(USD 1.3 million) to fund its operations for the next two
years. Chairman Claudia Mo of the party's fundraising
committee said that half of the money raised so far had come
from party members and their friends and relatives. The CP
has sent letters requesting donations to business tycoons,
companies and chambers of commerce.


11. (C) On April 19, Democratic Party (DP) member James To
told poloff that Beijing was alarmed by the popularity of the
CP and was actively trying to limit its growth. He believed

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the central government was working to block the CP's
potential funding sources while simultaneously infiltrating
the party to steer it in Beijing's direction. To believes
the CP would be much easier for mainlanders to infiltrate
than the DP, because the views of CP members are much closer
to those of Beijing. Nevertheless, he said the central
government has not yet made a strategic decision on whether
to work with the party, or try to isolate it. To believes CP
members are a bit naive in their dealings with Beijing and
don't recognize the Communist Party's tactics. Similarly, on
April l3 Mandy Tam, CP Treasurer and legislator representing
the accounting sector, told us that a local tycoon had
informed the CP that Beijing had instructed Hong Kong
businessmen not to give money to the CP until after Donald
Tsang's successful re-election as CE next year.

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Coordination and Competition for Pro-Democracy Votes
-------------- --------------


12. (C) The CP's relationship with other members of the
democracy movement is complex. On the one hand, the CP and
the DP have announced plans to cooperate on their common goal
of placing at least one hundred pro-democracy members on the
800-member Chief Executive Election Committee. However, both
parties have told us separately that they do not intend to
coordinate strategy when competing for votes in the District
Council and Legislative Council elections. Separately, there
has been speculation in the press that two more parties may
be joining Hong Kong's political landscape: a more left-wing
alliance led by former radio talk show host Raymond Wong and
legislators Albert Chan and Leung "Long Hair" Kwok-hung, and
a pro-Beijing labor party led by Federation of Trade Unions
legislator Kwong Chi-kin.
Cunningham