University of Hong Kong student protesters described by Beijing newspaper as ‘Red Guards’
A commentary in the Beijing-based Global Times newspaper has described the University of Hong Kong students who stormed a university council meeting on Tuesday as “Red Guards”, who were notorious for purging intellectuals during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.
For the second day in a row, pro-Beijing newspapers in Hong Kong such as Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao made the same comparison, but HKU student leader Billy Fung Jing-en said the comparison was wrong.
“The Red Guards were manipulated by Mao Zedong as tools of power struggle, but HKU students have a free mind and know what we are doing,” Fung said.
At the centre of the controversy is HKU’s former law dean Johannes Chan Man-mun, who was recommened for the job of pro-vice-chancellor at the university. But since the candidacy was revealed, pro-Beijing newspapers have criticised Chan for his working relationship with HKU legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who co-founded the Occupy Central movement.
The episode in HKU looked a bit like a Hong Kong version of the Cultural Revolution
On Tuesday, Fung and a group of students stormed the venue where the university’s governing body was meeting after it voted down a motion calling on it to stop delaying the appointment. During the chaos, one of the councillors, Professor Lo Chung-mau, fell down, saying his knee had been injured. He was taken to hospital.