Thousands of students took part in anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong last year. Many now fear that the cherished academic freedom is coming under renewed attack from China. (Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images)
March 13
BEIJING — Scholars in Hong Kong are growing concerned that the territory’s cherished academic freedom is coming under renewed attack from China in the aftermath of last year’s student-led pro-democracy protests.
Attacks in Communist Party-backed newspapers on a leading liberal professor, reports of government interference in academic appointments and renewed calls for “patriotic education” to be introduced into schools have stirred up emotions in the former British colony.
Academics are concerned that China and its conservative backers in Hong Kong are trying to subtly exert more control over universities and schools in order to gradually rein in criticism and silence a source of unrest.
“We are very worried about the erosion of freedom of expression in Hong Kong — we see this happening in the media and it is now happening in academia,” said Dora Choi Po-king, an associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and member of a new “Concern Group” of academics.
Hundreds of academics signed a petition letter this month expressing their concerns about “political intervention” in the territory’s universities and “a serious threat to academic freedom, one of the core values held dear in Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong enjoys very considerable academic freedom at the moment, and any attempt to curb that freedom is likely to be both subtle and fiercely resisted.
There is no comparison to the savage clampdown that universities in mainland China faced after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, but many academics are worried, nevertheless.
“This year the onslaught has been pretty substantial,” said Michael Davis, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, complaining of an attempt to “rein in” government critics or pro-democracy voices.
Hong Kong media report that the territory’s Beijing-backed chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, has been attempting to block the appointment of a leading liberal academic to a key post at Hong Kong University.
The former dean of HKU’s law faculty, Johannes Chan Man-mun, was critical of the government during last year’s protests. One of his faculty members, law professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting, was a leader of the Occupy Central movement.
