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In Hong Kong, Some Activists Fear Academic Freedom Will Suffer Under National
Security Law

VOA News

   When lecturer Shiu Ka-Chun received a letter from his university last
   week, he was shocked to find that he had been effectively fired.

   Shiu, also a legislator, has taught social work at the Baptist
   University of Hong Kong for 11 years, where his teaching had been
   consistently rated as excellent. He was jailed last year for "inciting
   public nuisance" in the 2014 civil disobedience Occupy Central movement
   and after his release, he was removed from teaching dutiespending
   disciplinary proceedings linked to his conviction.

   Shiu said his effective dismissal amounted to "political persecution"
   but the university gave him no explanation. He said he felt "angry,
   upset and insulted." The university declined to comment on his case.

   Law professor Benny Tai, one of the founders of the 2014 occupy
   movement jailed last year on public nuisance charges for his role, was
   also fired by the University of Hong Kong last week.

   Tai lamented that academics in Hong Kong are "no longer free to make
   controversial statements about politically or socially controversial
   matters."

   Shui and Tai's dismissals occurred the same week as the arrests of four
   students on national security charges, the disqualification of 12
   pro-democracy legislative candidates and news of Hong Kong police
   issuing arrest warrants for six Hong Kong activists abroad.

   The incidents took place within a month of the passing of a
   strict,broadly definednational security lawthat, among other
   things,bans acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with
   foreign forces.

   Although Tai's dismissal was widely consideredanindicator of the demise
   of the city's academic freedom, China's liaison office and the
   Beijing-owned press in Hong Kong triumphantly declared it as "a deed of
   justice" for an academic who hasspread "poisonous" political thinking
   among youngsters. TheWen Wei Ponewspaper compared Tai's dismissal to
   the removal of "a poisonous cancer" and portrayed Tai in a cartoon as a
   virus being dusted away by a broom.

   Hong Kong and Chinese officials have escalated their rhetoric on the
   education sector in recent months, accusing teachers of "inciting"
   anti-China sentiments and encouraging students to oppose the
   authorities,and blaming them for the mass, anti-government protests
   last year. The national security law is aimed at stamping outactivities
   likethe pro-democracy protests, which turned increasingly violent as
   frustrations mounted.

   Hong Kong's top leader,Carrie Lam,told a forum days after the national
   security law was passed last month that social movements, from the
   Occupy movement in 2014 to last year's anti-government
   movement,indicatethat "anti-China forces have infiltrated school
   campuses."

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