University student union disbands amid civil society meltdown

The student union at one of Hong Kong’s top universities has announced that it will be dissolved, citing increasing problems since the university administration ‘severed ties’ with the student body earlier this year.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Student Union (CUSU) is the second student body to disband in Hong Kong since the passing of the National Security Law, which outlaws acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. The University of Hong Kong Students’ Union disbanded in August.

CUSU, founded in 1971, said in a statement released on 7 October that “for 50 years CUSU existed as an independent student organisation whose representatives were elected through a democratic process. It is a matter of profound regret that CUSU is now history.”

The union said the decision came after the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) administration announced in February that the university would stop collecting fees for the union starting from September. “They demanded that we register through government agencies instead of recognising our registration on campus, as has been the long-established practice.”

Six of Hong Kong’s eight publicly funded universities ceased collecting membership fees for their student unions from this September, severing the official link between university administrations and student unions.

The CUSU said the decision to disband also followed difficulties reconciling professional legal advice with instructions from the university management to register the body for the new academic year with government agencies.

“We are now torn between following the legal advice or complying with the university administration’s demand,” its statement read.

The union said that “as a member of the CUHK community we have always maintained open channels of communication with the university administration. Even during the most severe challenges, the administration continued to recognise and affirm our legitimacy and legal status on campus.”

However, that changed in February when the CUHK administration said it would stop collecting fees on behalf of the student union, stop providing venues for its activities, withhold administrative support, suspend its members from their positions on all university committees, and require it to register as an independent body and assume legal responsibility for itself.

Tensions between the CUHK administration and students increased after national security police arrested 10 students after slogans deemed to be forbidden under national security laws were displayed during a campus protest march in November 2020. The university administration had called the police to campus over what it called an “unauthorised demonstration and procession” by graduating students.

Decimation of civil society and unions

The dissolution of the student unions at two of Hong Kong’s oldest and most prestigious universities comes against a backdrop of the decimation of Hong Kong civil society, unions and democracy organisations since the national security law came into effect in July 2020.

Many activists have said that they have been stunned by the speed at which civil society organisations and unions have been dismantled.

Some were forced to shut down after threats and campaigns from pro-Beijing groups in Hong Kong or reports in pro-Beijing media that they would be investigated for receiving foreign donations or other activities “contrary to the security law”.

The Hong Kong University student union was forced to close after criticism not just in Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing media but also directly from the official Communist Party organ, the People’s Daily in April this year.

In August four Hong Kong University student leaders were arrested by the police and accused of national security offences including “advocating terrorism” for a statement the student union leadership had made in support of a man who stabbed a police officer.

Overall in Hong Kong, some 50 civil society groups and unions have ceased operations in recent months, including the city’s largest teachers’ union, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union (HKPTU), representing more than 95,000 or 90% of Hong Kong school teachers. It announced in August that it was winding down and liquidating its substantial assets, including property investments, in Hong Kong.

“We have felt enormous pressure,” HKPTU President Fung Wai-wah said during a press conference in early August. Fung said the union had tried hard to find ways to continue its operations, but still failed to find ways that “could solve the crisis”.

“I can only say that the social and political situation changed too fast and too quickly, and our decision [to shut down] was made in response to these changes,” said Fung.

Educators and activists in fear

Joshua Rosenzweig of rights group Amnesty International said the disbandment of HKPTU showed the level of fear among educators: “This is the latest in a troubling pattern in which the Hong Kong authorities readily heed strident but baseless calls targeting groups or individuals in Hong Kong.

“Having effectively neutralised the political opposition, the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities now appear to be ramping up attempts to wipe out civil society groups that have a strong mobilising capacity – a disturbing development for other unions still operating in the city,” he said.

Other groups that have announced in the past few months they will cease operations include the Progressive Lawyers Group, Progressive Teachers’ Alliance and the Civil Human Rights Front with more than 40 affiliated groups.

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, the city’s largest independent trade union umbrella group with 93 affiliated unions with an aggregated membership of 145,000, disbanded on Sunday after a membership vote.

Vice-Chair Leo Tang said at a press conference on 4 October that “political uncertainty” had made it difficult to continue. He has been quoted as saying that members of the group had received threats to their personal safety.

The union has 15 training centres in Hong Kong, providing more than 200 vocational courses. These will have to close, affecting more than 1,000 students, the union said.

Hong Kong’s Security Bureau warned on 3 October that groups would not evade liability for any criminal offences through disbanding. “[A]n organisation and its members shall remain criminally liable for the offences they have committed, notwithstanding its disbandment or the resignation of its members,” a statement said on Sunday evening.

“The police will continue to spare no efforts in pursuing the legal liabilities of any organisation and person suspected of violating the Hong Kong National Security Law… or other laws of Hong Kong,” the Security Bureau said.