President of Education University of Hong Kong calls for dialogue and communication to end political crisis, citing French government’s approach to ‘yellow vests’
- Stephen Cheung said he had written to Chief Executive Carrie Lam, urging her to address protesters’ demands
- Students were however disappointed with two-and-a-half-hour colloquy, as Cheung declined to join march planned for Tai Po on Saturday
The president of the Education University of Hong Kong has called for dialogue and communication to resolve the current political crisis, and he said the city could learn from how France approached the “yellow vest” movement.
Professor Stephen Cheung Yan-leung made his remarks on Friday during a dialogue session with the institution’s students, staff and alumni, against a backdrop of the protests triggered by the now-shelved extradition bill that have engulfed the city for the past two months.
“Social problems must be addressed through dialogue, communication and listening,” Cheung said in the session.
“Our society needs to cool down rather than heating up. Persistent stand-offs and clashes will not help in solving the problems in society,” he said.
Citing the case of the “yellow vests” protest movement which began in France late last year, Cheung said the number of protesters had drastically fallen from over 400,000 at the outset to around 200 last month, after an extensive public debate was initiated by the French government.
He said French president Emmanuel Macron was involved in those dialogues with the public for seven hours every week, and had received 2 million messages from the people about the government and the economy.