Explainer | How did Hong Kong’s largest teachers’ union enrage Beijing, and what’s in store for the opposition group now that it’s disbanding?

The Professional Teachers’ Union said it would end its 47-year run as it ‘saw no future’ in the current political climate

The move came after the Education Bureau revealed it was cutting ties with the group, which authorities accuse of inciting anti-government sentiment

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The government says it will stop treating Hong Kong’s largest single-profession trade union as a professional body. Photo: Warton Li

Published: 9:00am, 4 Aug 2021Updated: 8:23pm, 10 Aug 2021

Hong Kong’s Professional Teachers’ Union announced on Tuesday that it was ending its 47-year run, saying it was left with no choice but to disband amid a difficult political climate.

The decision by the 95,000-strong union – the city’s largest teachers’ group – came after the Education Bureau dropped a bombshell just over a week ago by severing official ties with what is widely seen as the last power base within the embattled opposition camp. The government’s move came just hours after two Communist Party mouthpieces called the group a “malignant tumour” that had to be eradicated.

In recent days, the union has floated goodwill gestures in an apparent bid to mend ties, but in declaring its demise on Tuesday, the group’s leaders conceded those efforts had failed.

The Post explores the background behind the saga, laying out how the 47-year-old organisation emerged as a thorn in Beijing’s side that could no longer be tolerated, and its impact on the wider education sector.

Szeto Wah, the founding chairman of the Professional Teachers’ Union, speaks at a rally in Victoria Park in May 1978. Photo: Chan Kiu

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