Academics, students sign petition calling for Hong Kong universities to reverse dismissals of Benny Tai, Shiu Ka-chun over Occupy protests
- The two men, a law scholar and a social work lecturer, are appealing convictions for their activities during the 2014 protest movement
- Tai was removed from his tenured post after an earlier recommendation by the university’s senate was overruled
The joint petition said the dismissal of Benny Tai Yiu-ting, a law scholar at the University of Hong Kong, and Baptist University social work lecturer Shiu Ka-chun was reflective of the political repression facing dissidents as well as shrinking academic freedom in the city.
Andrew Nathan, a political-science professor at Columbia University, and Jerome Cohen, founder of US-Asia Law Institute of New York University, are among the 281 overseas academics who signed the joint petition, which started on August 9.
Other signatories include 332 local academics, 105 non-academic staff and nearly 1,800 members of the public.
The joint petition was co-organised by the Scholars’ Alliance for Academic Freedom, the Hong Kong Baptist University Faculty and Staff Union, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union and the Confederation of Tertiary Institutes Staff Unions.