Shouting match takes place as 250 University of Hong Kong students stage rally to support class boycott
Campaign for HKU council reform meets resistance in shape of counter rally by pro-establishment supporters
About 250 University of Hong Kong students staged a rally at the school’s Pok Fu Lam campus on Wednesday in support of a week-long class boycott to demand an overhaul of the institution’s governing council.
The boycott will last until at least January 26, when the council is scheduled to meet and discuss university affairs.
The campaign came after chief executive Leung Chun-ying’s controversial appointment of former education minister Arthur Li Kwok-cheung as the council’s new chairman at the end of last year.
READ MORE: HKU students to boycott classes until university governing council’s structure is reviewed
The appointment followed the council’s decision in September to reject the promotion of pro-democracy law professor Johannes Chan Man-mun to a key managerial post.
Many students, staff members and people from the society viewed these events as the result of political pressure.
A source close to the information said the council had put into the meeting agenda boycotting students’ demands that the council form a committee to review whether the chief executive should be the university’s chancellor by default, whether he should continue to hold the power to appoint council members and whether the number of members from inside the university should be increased to account for at least half of the council.