While Hong Kong’s freedom of speech and press has been criticized for being severely undermined in recent years, the academic autonomy and freedom of universities have also been eroded and squeezed. Recently, the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s China Studies Service Center, which has a history of more than 50 years and is known as the world’s “Mecca for Chinese studies,” has been rumored to have been closed down by the university and its functions dismantled and dispersed to other university departments. The university confirmed the news on Wednesday, saying it was “reorganizing” the China Studies Service Center. The foreign director, who had been ambitious for the center for several years, resigned in a show of discontent.
The university also confirmed that the current multi-functional China Studies Service Center will be split into the CU Library and the CU Institute of Chinese Culture for service integration, according to a Dec. 26 report in the international media.
The University Service Center, the predecessor of the China Studies Service Center, has been identified by Chinese authorities as a CIA site since its inception, and pressure has been brought to bear on Hong Kong and British authorities. After investigating and understanding the situation, Hong Kong and British officials determined that it was a purely academic institution and that there was no harassment. Over the years, the Center has gradually developed into an academic mecca for China studies.
Chen Jianmin, formerly an associate professor in CUHK’s Department of Sociology and one of the “Three Sons of Occupy,” became the director of the China Studies Service Center in April 2012. In March 2013, the three sons formally proposed a peaceful occupation of Central on October 1, 2014, to fight for Hong Kong people to be elected by universal suffrage for the Chief Executive as promised by Beijing. To avoid bringing suspicion to the center, Chan Kin-man resigned from his position as director of the center in August 2013. The actual Occupy Central movement, on the other hand, only started early in late September 2014 and lasted for nearly three months. Despite the fact that Chen’s involvement in the occupation was a personal social act unrelated to his teaching position, the center has been repeatedly falsely accused by the pro-China camp.
Some CUHK officials have said that the absence of the center system, which has been in place for decades, has relieved the university of a political worry, especially with the sword of the “Hong Kong version of the National Security Law” hanging around its neck. Although CUHK’s top management dismantled the center in the name of “restructuring” and sternly denied being pressured by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region or by external pressure, no matter how one argues, one cannot rule out that either CUHK’s top management was pressured or CUHK set its own red line and castrated itself.
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