Democrats to probe 'mainland infiltrators'
Large sums offered to two members; mystery rise in requests to join party
Democratic Party chiefs have launched emergency action to find out if the party is being infiltrated by mainland interests.
The move follows offers of large sums of cash to two senior party members and a mysterious increase in membership applications this month, almost half of which the party considers dubious.
Speaking after an emergency meeting last night with central standing committee members, whom he described as shocked, party chairman Lee Wing-tat said the two cash offers could be just the tip of the iceberg.
He said many party members had not followed the proper procedure to report their mainland contacts. 'While we have not yet reached a final conclusion and cannot say for sure we are being infiltrated ... two of us were offered money with a view to asking them for information, or to control them,' Mr Lee said.
He said a few months ago a senior party member met a mainland public security official in a mainland hotel. The mainland official has kept regular contacts with the party member. The member, a businessman who was having trouble with his company, was offered 'a big stack' of banknotes by the official, worth thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, which he promptly returned, Mr Lee said.
The official did not say why the money was offered, and the party member reported the offer to Mr Lee the following day.
In a later incident, another senior party member, who had personal problems and needed money, was offered 'dozens' of $1,000 banknotes in an envelope by a mainland contact in Hong Kong, which he also promptly returned, Mr Lee said.
The identities of the two members will be disclosed later.
Mr Lee said the party's initial response was that they were isolated incidents that had occurred amid greatly increased communications with the mainland following the pro-democracy march on July 1, 2003.
But after an internal investigation, the party leadership found many members had not followed the established rules on reporting their contacts with mainland figures. 'We realised the seriousness when we found last week there were 30 applications for party membership. That was unprecedented in the past decade since the establishment of the party,' Mr Lee said.
He said two groups of five applicants gave separate but identical addresses, while another six had said they lived at the same address. Ten applicants could not be contacted through the information they provided.
The leadership has appointed a taskforce, headed by secretary-general Cheung Yin-tung and including party elders Szeto Wah and Martin Lee Chu-ming, to investigate.
