Last Hong Kong governor Chris Patten says academic freedom under threat from government taking its cue from Beijing

Former leader says universities being “brought to heel” by government because of their students’ support for the Occupy movement

Reading Time:2 minutes

“The rationale seems to be that, because students strongly supported the pro-democracy protests in 2014, the universities where they study should be brought to heel,” Patten said. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 6:12pm, 23 Feb 2016Updated: 6:12pm, 23 Feb 2016

Former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten has added his voice to protests claiming the autonomy of local universities is under threat, saying they were being “brought to heel” by the government because students had thrown their support behind the pro-democracy Occupy movement.

In a commentary titled “The Closing of the Academic Mind” published by Project Syndicate on Tuesday, Patten said he was made chancellor of every university in the city when he was Hong Kong’s last governor before the 1997 handover. But he said he had protested at the time that it would be better for the universities to choose their own constitutional heads.

“The universities would not allow me to resign gracefully. So for five years I enjoyed the experience of giving tens of thousands of students their degrees and watching what this rite of passage meant for them and their families,” he said.

The former European Union commissioner for external affairs said academics and students on the mainland and in Hong Kong were faced with threats to their autonomy and freedom from “an authoritarian government”.

“In Hong Kong, the autonomy of universities and free speech itself, guaranteed in the city’s Basic Law, and the 50-year treaty between Britain and China on the city’s status, are under threat,” Patten said.

“The rationale seems to be that, because students strongly supported the pro-democracy protests in 2014, the universities where they study should be brought to heel.”

And the Hong Kong government, he said, “blunders away, stirring up trouble, clearly on the orders of the government in Beijing”.