Letters | China is not the real problem with Hong Kong university’s latest appointments

  • While the nationality of the two appointees and the possibility that one of them might be a Communist Party member has aroused controversy, what is actually troubling is that the University of Hong Kong’s senior management will be entirely male and skewed towards the applied sciences

Key appointments at HKU, founded in 1911, often capture public attention because it is a storied institution with a reputation for academic freedom. Photo: Sam Tsang
I write with regard to your report on the University of Hong Kong’s appointment of two vice-presidents and the resulting disputes. Such conflicts almost always default to splitting along the pro-Beijing vs pro-democracy binary, where the pro-establishment camp has been seen to always gain a de facto upper hand.

Such is the case again today. Doubts and reservations are again framed and dismissed, not unjustifiably, as intentional maligning and sensationalism.

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