Meeting arranged by Jennifer Eagleton between the Civic Party and student leaders immediately prior to Occupy Central on 5 September 2014

On 17 September 2014, Wen Wei Po published an article on a meeting of the Civic Party’s English Language Group (ELG), held in Room 502 of the LegCo building on the evening of 5 September 2014, “The Way Forward from the Young Generation’s Perspective”.

This meeting was significant for two reasons:

1.      Jennifer Anne Eagleton is not only a senior member of the Civic Party, she was also the Civic Party’s inside person at HKU in the Occupy Central protests, being a member of the Design Democracy Hong Kong Project Advisory Group. See link: http://nedprogramsinhk.blogspot.com/2016/08/introducing-design-democracy-advisory.html

2.      Yvonne LEUNG Lai-kwok, one of the student leaders in the Occupy Central protests who was an attendee at the meeting, is also the centre of a recent controversy at HKU involving political interference in HKU’s internal affairs by the Civic Party, where she categorically denied having any further relationship with the Civic Party after a 2012 internship with Alan LEONG Kah-kit. Her presence at this meeting disproves this. See link: https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/01/28/hku-class-boycott-committee-rebut-council-chair-smears-deny-they-are-controlled-by-political-party/

Background

The Civic Forum English Language Group is a forum which meets in LegCo and holds meetings, often in conjunction with HK2020. Here’s an advert for a meeting they held in January 2014.

Civic Party English Language Group (ELG)
meeting notice on 7 January 2014

ELG meeting on 5 September 2014, “The Way Forward from the Young Generation’s Perspective”

On 17 September 2014, Wen Wei Po published an article on an ELG meeting held on 5 September 2014. The meeting was entitled: “The Way Forward from the Young Generation’s Perspective”. We’ve taken details of this meeting from the reports by the Canada China Friendship Association in their blog posts US Political Influence Among Young Hong Kong Activists (Part I)¹ and US Political Influence Among Young Hong Kong Activists (Part II)².

According to the blog post, this is a partial list of other attendees (out of 33, perhaps more): 

• Jennifer Eagleton, lecturer, City University of Hong Kong,
• Gladys Li, lawyer,
• Lee Faulkner, CEO, Radio Chinwag,
• Steve Vines, political reporter/commentator,
• Margaret Ng, Civic Party member  and lawyer,
• David M. Webb, former non-executive director of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,
• Elizabeth Bosher, former Economic Department official (at the US Consulate),
• Rachel Cartland, former Financial and Economic Affairs Department official,
• Robin Bradbeer, director, Hong Kong Internet Management Co. Ltd.,
• Evan Fowler, director, Home Court News (translation?),
• Sebastian Veg, researcher on politics, French Center for Research on Contemporary China,
• Michele Geldens, English teacher, Hotung Secondary School,
• Jenn Horgos, Hong Kong TV anchor,
• Suzanne Pepper, American China scholar,
• Yvonne Leung, president of the Hong Kong University Student Union,
• Agnes Chow, spokesperson for the high school student activist group Scholarism,
• Hoidick Chu, spokesperson for ‘Local Action’,
• David Zweig, chair professor, Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,
• YC Chen (陈允中), Assistant Professor, Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 

The following photographs were posted from this meeting:

Jennifer Eagleton and Robin Bradbeer chatting

Student leaders including Agnes CHOW and Yvonne LEUNG

Other attendees

Other attendees

Following the meeting, both Robin Bradbeer and Jennifer Eagleton posted Facebook rebuttals of certain allegations made by Wen Wei Po about the meeting. They did not deny the meeting took place or that the list of attendees was wrong. Here are their rebuttals:

Rebuttal by Robin Bradbeer, posted to Design Democracy Hong Kong Facebook page
on 14 September 2014.

Further rebuttal posted on Facebook

on 19 September 2014.

References

¹Canada China Friendship Association Blog. US Political Infuence Among Young Hong Kong Activists ( Part I). Posted on 6 October 2014. See link: http://youxie.ca/us-political-infuence-among-young-hong-kong-activists-part-i/

²Canada China Friendship Association Blog. US Political Infuence Among Young Hong Kong Activists (Part I I). Posted on 9 October 2014. See link: http://youxie.ca/us-political-influence-among-young-hong-kong-activists-part-ii/