Explainer | What does Chinese University’s move to cut ties with student union mean for civil rights movement in Hong Kong?

Name: China’s Rebel City: The Hong Kong Protests
Uploaded: 2021-02-27T06:30:12.000Z
Duration: 7 min 30 s
Description: China’s Rebel City: The Hong Kong Protests

Officials and pro-establishment supporters have grown increasingly frustrated with behaviour of city’s students

Some fear other universities could follow suit as means of stopping students from speaking up

Reading Time:5 minutes

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Members of Chinese University’s student union hold a news conference in February. Photo: Reuters

Chris Lau

Published: 2:30pm, 27 Feb 2021Updated: 2:30pm, 27 Feb 2021

For decades, university students have been the backbone of Hong Kong’s civil rights movement.

But some of their increasingly aggressive rhetoric, and involvement in the sometimes violent and disruptive anti-government protests in 2019, has left the authorities and pro-establishment supporters increasingly frustrated.

That has raised fears the city may soon lose a long-cherished dissenting voice already under threat after Beijing imposed its national security law on the city last June.

On Thursday, Chinese University – the site of a major clash between police and protesters in 2019 – wrote the latest chapter in this varsity drama when it said it would cut ties with its student union on national security grounds.

The newly elected body responded on Saturday by announcing the withdrawal of campaign material including its manifesto, which the university had warned might run foul of the legislation.

Here is how the city reached this point, and how it could shape students’ resistance in the future:

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China’s Rebel City: The Hong Kong Protests

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