Occupy Central
Occupy Central is a civil disobedience movement which began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It calls on thousands of protesters to block roads and paralyse Hong Kong's financial district if the Beijing and Hong Kong governments do not agree to implement universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020 according to "international standards." The movement was initiated by Benny Tai Yiu-ting (戴耀廷), an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, in January 2013.
Umbrella Movement
The Umbrella Movement (Chinese: 雨傘運動; pinyin: yǔsǎn yùndòng) is a loose political movement that was created spontaneously during the Hong Kong protests of 2014. Its name derives from the recognition of the umbrella as a symbol of defiance and resistance against the Hong Kong government, and the united grass-roots objection to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) of 31 August.
The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.
The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.
Occupy Central site in an area surrounding the Legislative Council and Central Government Offices at Tamar were cleared 22-06-2015.
Hong Kong reform vote
The Hong Kong government’s political reform proposal for how the city elects its leader by universal suffrage for the first time in 2017 is based on a strict framework set by Beijing. The plan limits the number of candidates to two or three and requires them to win majority support from a 1,200 strong nominating committee. Arguing that this does not constitute genuine universal suffrage, pan-democratic lawmakers have vowed to reject the package, while pro-democracy groups have protested. The government’s resolution was to be put to a vote by the 70-member Legislative Council in June 2015, requiring a two-thirds majority to be passed.
POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 226
POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 41
POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 41
Full coverage of the day’s events on 29-07
Chaos in uni council
Chaos reigned at a University of Hong Kong Council meeting last night when about 100 students and supporters barged in as 23 council members were just about to discuss its decision to defer the appointment of a new pro vice chancellor.
Council chairman Edward Leong Che-hung called an adjournment of the meeting at about 9.25pm after the rowdy students led by Hong Kong University Students' Union president Billy Fung Jing-en barged in and laid siege to the Senate Room.
The meeting, on the 10th floor of the Knowles Building on the HKU campus, had started at 5pm.
Fung clambered up on a table, and commanded that students block the exit to stop council members leaving.
By 10.30pm, Fung said the members could leave the venue. Leong and vice chancellor Peter Mathieson stayed behind to talk with students. There discussions finished shortly after midnight.
Leong said the decision "remains unchanged," after the forced adjournment.
Students have been agitating for the council to appoint the former dean of the university's faculty of law, pro- democrat Johannes Chan Man-mun, as pro vice chancellor. The appointment was deferred, with the council deciding on June 30 to wait for the appointment of provost and deputy vice chancellor before taking on the pro vice chancellor.
The students kept shouting and heckling, some pointing their fingers at council member and executive councillor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, as others banged on tables.
During the commotion, council member Lo Chu ng-mau, chair professor of hepatobiliary surgery, fell on the floor. He was sent to Queen Mary Hospital, with some students still chasing him as he was wheeled to the ambulance. Another council member, Ayesha Macpherson Lau, wife of former Chinese University vice chancellor Lawrence Lau Juen-yee, was also taken on a stretcher to an ambulance.
The students questioned whether the council was being "manipulated" by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, and asked Leong to explain why the council had to delay the appointment of the pro vice chancellor.
Leong repeated that the appointment should wait. "Can we wait a while and give a little respect to this new deputy vice chancellor?" he asked, sparking jeers of "your reasoning is invalid" by students.
Mathieson appealed for students to leave. "I am very concerned that we have a large number of people in a small room and a lot of raised emotions ... I appeal to everybody to leave in an orderly fashion and protect everybody's safety," he said, adding that students' viewpoint was heard.
Mathieson refused to spell out the deliberations of the council, citing confidentiality.
At one point, a weary Lo Chung- mau, council member and chair professor of hepatobiliary surgery, slumped on the floor.
Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, council member, denounced the students' action as "a Cultural Revolution," adding the students were abusing an elderly like him for not letting him leave and have dinner.
Fung warned that if the issue is not resolved, they would take the same action at the next council meeting.
Leong said he felt sorry for the chaos and understood the passion of the students.
"When the students rushed into the room, actually I was about to propose a timetable for the appointment of the pro vice chancellor," Leong said.
Asked by reporters if the Liaison Office had infringed on council members, Leong said he did not know.
About 100 students all wearing black T-shirts, including former HKUSU president Yvonne Leung Lai- Kwok and Federation of Students deputy secretary-general Wong Ka-fai held a sit-in protest outside the Senate Room from 4pm. At 4.30pm yesterday, the alumni concern group HKU Last Line of Defence convener Ip Kin-yuen, who is also the education-sector lawmaker, submitted a petition letter with 30 alumni to Leong.
The alumni all in black included Civic Party chairwoman Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit, former Democratic Party chairman Lee Wing-tat and Labour Party general secretary Kwok Wing- kin.
They chanted "Defend HKU" and "Protect academic autonomy."
About five security officers from the school stood in front of the door of the Senate Room during the meeting.
A council member, Man Cheuk-fei, said he understood that society has strong reactions on the council's deferred appointment.
The Education Bureau issued a statement last night condemning the violence.
Coconuts
Students branded ‘Red Guards’ after HKU protest; council member accused of ‘fake fall’
The hospitalisation of an HKU Council member during scuffles at a meeting on Tuesday night has come under the spotlight after video footage appeared to show him sinking quietly to the floor – rather than being the victim of an assault as he later claimed.
Internet users questioned the actions of Lo Chung-mau, who fell to the ground clutching his knee after about 50 students forced their way into Tuesday’s council meeting to protest a decision to delay the appointment of a new pro-vice chancellor.
The pro-Beijing camp branded the protesters “disgraceful” and “violent” following the commotion, which left Lo and a fellow council member seeking hospital treatment. One newspaper claimed “extremists” had infiltrated the meeting and went so far as to describe the students as “Red Guards”.
Lo branded the students “disgraceful” after claiming someone had hit his leg, while fellow council member Arthur Li Kwok-cheung said Lo had been shoved to the floor as he tried to leave the meeting.
Lo Chung-mau collapses. Photo: Stand News.
Footage on social media
In a widely circulated video shot by local broadcaster Delight Media, Lo can be seen standing calmly among students and reporters, looking to his left while most attention is fixed upon a commotion at the centre of the room. Suddenly he sinks to the floor and disappears from view.
As the camera pans down he is shown lying on his side holding his leg and not moving. The video gives no indication of a shove, nor that he was heading toward the exit as has been claimed.
One netizen said, “Please look for better timing [to fall down]. You should collapse during a scuffle. How ugly [the fall was]!”
Another wrote, “This guy is so funny, [his collapse] was ridiculously fake. We’d have been deceived if someone hadn’t taken a video.”
In another video shot by a citizen journalist, a security guard appears to be arguing with one of two students standing next to Lo, while the youngsters appear unaware of Lo’s presence until he falls down.
As Lo waited in a wheelchair to be sent to hospital, he blasted the students’ actions as “disgraceful” and accused them of trying to block him from seeking medical attention.
“I’d be ashamed if those who are now blocking my way to the hospital — some even threw water bottles at me — are HKU students. They are lawless,” said Lo.
Reactions of the pro-Beijing camp
The incident made the front page of leftist newspapers Wen Wei Po and Tai Kung Pao on Wednesday. Wen Wei Po called the student protesters “Red Guards” — referencing the paramilitary youth organisation which supported Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution — who “charged into a meeting and hurt a council member”. It further described them as cold-blooded for “preventing Lo from going to the hospital”.
The paper said that “extremists have mixed [into the meeting] and provoked fights”, referring to pro-democracy activists who had gathered outside the building to support the students. The report stated that activists had taken advantage of the student protests after “being defeated” in last year’s pro-democracy Occupy protests.
Tai Kung Pao’s editorial called upon taxpayers to “protest against and condemn [the students’] villainy” and “ask HKU to punish them in accordance with the law”.
Wednesday front pages of Wen Wei Po and Tai Kung Pao.
Ip Kwok-him, lawmaker of the pro-Beijing DAB party, repeated that the students’ actions had been “just like the Red Guards”.
“This is not democracy if those who talk about democracy don’t know what respect is. Students can express their opinions, but it doesn’t mean that others must accept their opinions,” said Ip.
Ip’s colleague, Christopher Chung Shu-kun, also a member of HKU’s Court, condemned the “troublemakers” and questioned whether a new pro-vice chancellor who is “supported by rioters” would ever be successful.
Brave Chan Yung, a member of China’s top political advisory body as well as City University’s Court, said the incident was evidence of the declining reputation of HKU’s law faculty and that students were “destroying HKU’s motto of ‘wisdom and virtue'”.
Political interference?
Johannes Chan Man-mun, a pro-democracy scholar and former dean of HKU’s law faculty, said in an interview with HKEJ that he had been unanimously recommended for the pro-vice chancellor post by the search committee in December 2014, and that management agreed he could take up the position on March 17.
Chan said he believed his pro-democracy stance was one reason for the delayed appointment, criticising the decision to postpone the announcement as “absolutely ridiculous”.
“The longer the incident has been delayed, the greater the feeling that there is political interference involved,” Chan said.
Johannes Chan, dean of HKU’s law faculty. Photo: Stand News.
Chan has been widely commended for his capability, commitment and popularity among students. Four incumbent HKU deans have praised Chan’s competence, but have not explicitly stated support for his appointment.
Critics have questioned the appointment system of the HKU Council, criticising the current system as prone to political interference. As the governing body of the university, the HKU Council is comprised of 24 members. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying acts as the chancellor of all subsidised tertiary institutions and directly appoints six members.
Only one-third of the members, including two student representatives, are individuals from within the university.
Critics argue that the appointment system allows the chief executive to interfere with academic affairs if he chooses to and says the institution’s president – currently Peter Matheison – has little power over them.
Mathieson has remained largely silent on the issue, but news reports revealed that he had objected the council’s decision to postpone Chan’s appointment.
The appointment delay comes after a leaked email revealed that Benny Tai had transferred money from anonymous donors to HKU accounts. Tai and his supervisor Johannes Chan were subsequently under internal investigation, but Tai has denied the charges and many consider both the email hack – and pro-Beijing newspapers’ extensive coverage of the incident – to be politically motivated.
Students occupy HKU Council meeting over Pro-VC appointment; two members hospitalised
Around 50 students charged into a Council of the University of Hong Kong meeting on Tuesday night, following news that the governing body decided to uphold a decision to delay the appointment of a new pro-vice chancellor. Two council members were hospitalised in the confusion.
Members of the council were not allowed the leave the meeting venue as protesting students flooded into the room. Billy Fung Jing-en, President of HKU’s Student Union, said that the council has not been defending the interests of the university. Fung said that students will continue to disrupt future meetings in order to prevent “systemic violence”.
Chaotic scenes.At one point, Fung demanded the council members return to their seats in order to restart the meeting. Students shouted slogans, criticising Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, one of the council members, and calling upon the president of the council to resign.
Lo Chung-mau. Photo: HKU Undergrad.
A member of the council, Lo Chung-mau, fell down during the confusion clutching his knee. Lo said he was “pushed by someone”, but footage emerged on social media contradicting his claim. Losaid that the student’s actions were “disgraceful” and was later sent to hospital.
Another member of the council, Ayesha Macpherson, was also sent to the hospital after her vehicle was surrounded.
Li, who was appointed to the council by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, was seen surrounded by security. Responding to the press, he questioned the students’ actions, asking: “What reasons do [the students] have to be dissatisfied? Can someone tell me whether I committed a crime? Did I kill someone or set fire to something?”
Arthur Li Kwok-cheung. Photo: HKU Undergrad via Facebook.
Police were called to the scene and a total of six police vehicles arrived at HKU. HKU President Peter Mathieson said that the university did not the police, and that while students might have violated school rules, they did not break the law. He added that he would not report the incident to police.
A spokesperson of the Education Bureau condemned the student’s actions, urging people to express their opinions peacefully and rationally.
Demands rejected.
Following the incident, students were granted a closed door meeting with Council President Edward Leong Chi-hung, HKU President Peter Mathieson and two other Council members. According to Ming Pao, students asked Leong to promise that the council would hold a special meeting before August 1st to give a definite decision on the appointment of the pro-vice chancellor.
Following the incident, students were granted a closed door meeting with Council President Edward Leong Chi-hung, HKU President Peter Mathieson and two other Council members. According to Ming Pao, students asked Leong to promise that the council would hold a special meeting before August 1st to give a definite decision on the appointment of the pro-vice chancellor.
The demand was rejected by Leong as over half of the council members had left the meeting. Leong proposed that they will suggest a timetable for the appointment in the next council meeting, however this suggestion was rejected by the students.
Students occupy HKU Council meeting. Photo: HKU Undergrad via Facebook.
Deferment sparks protests.
On Tuesday, the HKU Council, which is the governing body of the school, was set to deliberate on the decision to defer the appointmentof the new pro-vice chancellor (academic staffing and resources) which was made in the previous council meeting on June 30. The council previously said that the views of the new deputy vice-chancellor’s needed to be sought before the appointment for the pro-vice chancellor could be made.
On Tuesday, the HKU Council, which is the governing body of the school, was set to deliberate on the decision to defer the appointmentof the new pro-vice chancellor (academic staffing and resources) which was made in the previous council meeting on June 30. The council previously said that the views of the new deputy vice-chancellor’s needed to be sought before the appointment for the pro-vice chancellor could be made.
Pro-democracy scholar and former dean of law, Johannes Chan Man-mun, was reported to have been recommended unanimously by the search committee for the post. Chan considered his pro-democracy stance as a reason for the delayed appointment, criticising the decision as “absolutely ridiculous”.
In an interview with HKEJ, Chan confirmed that he was recommended by the search committee in December 2014, and the management agreed for Chan to take up the position on March 17. “The longer the incident has been delayed, the greater the feeling that there is political interference involved,” Chan said. “The council could not find a decision [to delay the appointment], and with the latest reason of ‘waiting for the deputy vice-chancellor’, the interference is very clear.”
Billy Fung Jing-en. Photo: HKU Undergrad.
Earlier in the afternoon, around 100 students surrounded the meeting venue, protesting against the deferral of appointment.
Lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, who represents the education sector, was also present prior the meeting to submit letters to members of the council outside the building. Ip, who was behind an alumni petition, stood with dozens of protesters including various pan-democratic legislators.
Legislator Ip Kin-Yuen. Photo: Ip Kin-yuen via Facebook.
Petition.
Ip’s petition totalled 2,600 signatures, including more than 1,500 HKU alumni. Prominent alumni of HKU such as former chief secretary Anson Chan, Civic Party chairperson Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, and the last colonial president of the legislature Andrew Wong Wang-fat were among the signatories.
Ip’s petition totalled 2,600 signatures, including more than 1,500 HKU alumni. Prominent alumni of HKU such as former chief secretary Anson Chan, Civic Party chairperson Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, and the last colonial president of the legislature Andrew Wong Wang-fat were among the signatories.
In an op-ed by the former editor-in-chief of Ming Pao, Kevin Lau Chun-to, it was claimed that members of the China Liaison Office and the Hong Kong government rallied votes within the council in order to delay the appointment.
The HKU Council is comprised of 24 members. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying acts as the chancellor of all subsidised tertiary institutions and appoints six members. Only one-third of the members, including two student representatives, are individuals from within the university.
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