Students Stage Sit-in As HKU Bosses Hold Meeting

The student union of the University of Hong Kong on Tuesday resorted to an impromptu sit-in protest outside the building where the university's governing council was meeting to reportedly discuss the appointment of two Tsinghua University scholars as vice presidents.

Students, teachers and alumni have expressed concern over the reported Communist Party background of one of the candidates, Max Shen.

Chanting slogans like "stop the vote", the group of some 30 student representatives said they wanted to put pressure on council members to postpone the appointments, until background investigations into the candidates were completed.

They said neither Shen nor the university had given an official response regarding allegations of his alleged Communist Party links, and they said the professor should make a written declaration to students and the public over any political affiliation.

The student union also submitted 4,200 signatures it had collected in two days from students, staff and alumni, to the university's registrar.

A student representative of the university council, Daniel Lei, said he would raise a motion asking for the appointments to be delayed.

Student union president, Edy Jeh, urged more students, teaching staff and alumni to join their protest, saying academic freedom and institutional autonomy are at stake.

"If the vice president is actually a Communist Party member, it will be a first for a university in Hong Kong that they will be in the senior management team. That would mean that the Communist Party is taking charge and taking over the universities' policy-making and other decision-making processes."