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DE RUEHHK #1744/01 1161005
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P 261005Z APR 06
FM AMCONSUL HONG KONG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6324
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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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 
 
HONG KONG 00001744  002 OF 003 
 
 
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 
 
HONG KONG 00001744  003 OF 003 
 
 
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. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
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