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HKU council controversy
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University vice-chancellor Peter Mathieson is surrounded by students after they stormed the council meeting. Photo: Dickson Lee

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
Shan Renping of the Global Times newspaper

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.

Referring to the incident, Global Times commentator Shan Renping wrote today that “the episode in HKU looked a bit like a Hong Kong version of the Cultural Revolution, and the students the ‘Hong Kong Red Guards’”.

Shan also accused Chan of mobilising students behind his back.

“It’s just a pro-vice-chancellor post. Since the council postponed the appointment, can Chan show some guts and shout ‘I don’t want the job’? This person seems to have a big [desire] for official posts,” he wrote.

Fung said Shan had misunderstood the students’ demand. He said: “We are not supporting any individual candidate, we are just asking the council [not to delay and] deal with the appointment.”

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