The president of the Hong Kong University Student Union was warned: the only thing waiting for you is jail and handcuffs

(Sept. 29, 2012)

The Chinese Communist Party newspaper published an article accusing the University of Hong Kong Students’ Union of smearing “one country, two systems” with its open letter on the university’s national security education program and warning its leaders that “only jail and handcuffs await anti-China elements.

An article published by the People’s Daily on Sunday (April 18, 2021) said, “The HKU student union has repeatedly made provocative statements.”

The open letter mentioned in the article was written to President Zhang Xiang on Friday by the Hong Kong University Students’ Union. The open letter mentions that the Hong Kong Education Secretary said last month that he had discussed with the presidents of subsidized universities the implementation of national security laws on campus, including mandatory national security education courses. The letter accuses Zhang Xiang of “being the head of the University of Hong Kong, but colluding with the presidents of the funded universities to carry out the government’s mission under the guise of national security.” The student union said that the University of Hong Kong, as one of the top institutions in Hong Kong, should be free from political influence and maintain the independence and autonomy of students, but the university is bending over backwards to the regime, willing to be a puppet and stifle academics.

The article in the People’s Daily says that the student union does not represent the majority of students, and even accuses the members of the student union of “not being students at all.”

The article concludes by warning the student union president, “Just look at Zhou Ting, who is serving a prison sentence, and you will know that if you had known, you wouldn’t have done it in the first place, and that all that awaits anti-China rebels is jail and handcuffs.”

Hundreds of pro-democracy activists and student movement leaders have been arrested and sentenced since Beijing imposed national security laws on Hong Kong. Chow Ting, one of the former student movement leaders and a former member of the Hong Kong House of Representatives, was sentenced to 10 months in jail in early December last year in connection with the 2019 siege of the police headquarters by the anti-China sending movement.