CY Leung repeats claim of ‘external forces’ influencing Occupy - but provides no evidence

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying claimed yesterday there was significant information indicating that foreign powers were behind the organisation of the Occupy Central movement, but he did not provide substantial evidence to support the claim.

At the height of the pro-democracy protests in November, Leung said he had proof foreign forces had long been meddling in the city's politics and he would substantiate his claims with evidence at an appropriate time.

"The interference of external forces into Hong Kong's politics - including a large-scale and illegal public movement such as Occupy Central - should have drawn [more] attention in the society," Leung said ahead of the Executive Council meeting yesterday.

"In the past few months, large amounts of materials have been revealed … and those people concerned did not deny the validity of such documents."

Leung did not specify what those materials were, but he was apparently referring to the leaked emails that showed Occupy co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting, a legal scholar at the University of Hong Kong, had forwarded HK$1.45 million in donations from at least one anonymous donor to his employer over several months last year to cover some of the expenses incurred by the Occupy movement.

In an event on Monday that was open only to two pro-government newspapers - Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Pao - Leung reportedly said the leaked emails showed "the trace of external forces" in the Occupy movement.