[2] The case came under media scrutiny after activist Eddie Chu Hoi-dick raised concerns about potential collusion between the Hong Kong government, businesses and rural landlords in his election campaign.
[5] The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Leung Chun-ying set up a task force to discuss issues relating to public housing development at Queen's Hill and Wang Chau.
[3] On 16 July 2013 and 5 September 2013, representatives of the Housing Department and Home Affairs Department carried out two informal consultations with the following rural leaders:[8] After being briefed on the proposed development plan of building 17, 000 public housing flats at Wang Chau,[9] the local representatives expressed concerns about the need for infrastructural support, impact on environment and brownfield issues.
The participants discussed about the infrastructural works required to meet the demands of the development project,[15] as well as technical amendments to the Ping Shan Outline Zoning Plan.
[21] On 21 May 2015, the Yuen Long District Council in a meeting discussed on the proposed infrastructural works from the Civil Engineering and Development Department on public access road for the Wang Chau project.
[24] On 15 September 2016, Paul Chan and Authority Cheung met with Eddie Chu and Edward Yiu Chung-yim, architectural sector lawmaker-elect to exchange views on the Wang Chau development project.
[25] Leung denied any trade-off with rural forces at all, citing parts of the internal document that the 4000 units have always been referred to as "phase one" of the Wang Chau project, out of the targeted 17,000 flats.
[33] Edward Yiu Chung-yim, criticized that the functions of the task force overlapped with those of the steering committee of land supply, which made one doubt Leung's intention in manipulating the Wang Chau development project.
[34] On the other hand, former Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung commented that it was normal for the Chief Executive to set up an interdepartmental task force if he deemed necessary.
[34] According to the Anthony Cheung, contacting local representatives through informal channels was "part of the normal procedures in public housing development projects for which no large-scale consultation exercise are conducted".
[37] Starry Lee Wai-king, member of the LegCo and chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said that soft lobbying was necessary but should not replace formal consultations.
[38] On the other hand, former Chief Secretary Anson Chan commented, "it was a bit absurd to convince the public that the government should defer to a rural leader, who is occupying an illegal site where he runs a car park, and instead evict the residents of three villages in the greenbelt area.
[38] The government was also criticised for colluding with business as Leung did not take back a nearby greenbelt site owned by New World Development (NWD) for the public housing project.