Eddie Chu spreading ‘white terror’ with talk of death threats, Yuen Long rural leader claims

Shap Pat Heung committee chairman Leung Fuk-yuen accuses newly elected lawmaker of exaggeration and sensationalism

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Leung Fuk-yuen was speaking on a radio programme on Monday morning. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 1:00pm, 12 Sep 2016Updated: 12:33am, 13 Sep 2016

A rural leader in Yuen Long has accused newly elected lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick of spreading “white terror” over the death threats he claimed to have received, despite admitting the veteran activist might have “offended” some rural landlords.

Leung Fuk-yuen, chairman of the Shap Pat Heung rural committee, which oversees some 30 villages in the south and east of Yuen Long, said yesterday that the incident had been exaggerated by Chu’s high-key manner, and had prompted people to think Hong Kong was a “horrible place”.

Eddie Chu Hoi-dick (centre, with Andrew Wan Siu-kin and Helena Wong Pik-wan) protests against violent politics. Photo: Dickson Lee

On Sunday, hundreds of Hongkongers gathered outside police headquarters to support Chu, who said Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying had promised him over the phone to look into a controversial public housing project in Yuen Long.

Chu, who had for years taken on vested interests over land rights in the New Territories, faced escalated death threats and has been under round-the-clock police protection since last Thursday.

“Chu always has a lot of opinions on land issues ... He might not quite understand the tradition in the New Territories,” Leung said.

He added that indigenous residents and rural landlords would naturally be “unhappy” whenever traditions were disrupted.