HKU Council Member Questions Vice-presidents Choices

A student representative at the University of Hong Kong’s governing council has questioned the proposal to appoint two mainland scholars as the institution’s vice-presidents, saying the council doesn’t know them well enough yet to vote on their appointments.

According to media reports, Max Shen and Gong Peng from Tsinghua University – and who are also attached to the University of California, Berkeley – have been named as candidates for the positions overseeing research and academic development. It's been reported that Shen was a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

In light of the reports, the undergraduate student representative on the HKU council, Lei Tsz-shing, said the vote for the positions – scheduled to take place this coming Tuesday – should be postponed.

Lei issued a statement on his Facebook page on Saturday, alleging the council had failed to conduct due diligence, in that it had failed to learn about “the full background of the candidates”.

An HKU spokesman had earlier said the media reports were “inconsistent with the facts” but did not specify. The spokesman said the institution would not make any comments until after the personnel appointments are confirmed.