By Zhao Yusha in Global Times, Sept 11, 2017
Conflicts triggered by pro-independence posters, which have appeared on “democracy walls” in Hong Kong universities, have disturbed Hong Kong’s stability and go against China’s unification, experts warned.
Clashes sparked by the posters in several Hong Kong universities, including the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) have continued with pro- and anti-independence students confronting each other as they vied to cover up each other’s posters.
“The situation in Hong Kong is worsening as the separatists are making clear statements this time that they want Hong Kong to be independent from China, which is different from before when they were just disappointed about the general election,” a student from the Chinese mainland surnamed Xiong, who has been in Hong Kong for three years, told the Global Times on Sunday.
CUHK Vice Chancellor Professor Joseph Sung Jao-yiu said there is freedom of expression in the university when he was asked about the posters, the South China Morning Post reported.
“Advocating Hong Kong independence goes against the one-China policy and violates the Basic Law. Students’ separatist remarks damage Hong Kong’s social stability – their behavior has nothing to do with ‘freedom of speech,'” Zhang Dinghuai, a professor at the Contemporary Chinese Politics Research Institute of Shenzhen University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Zhang urged the Hong Kong government to punish the students for sedition.
Shameful behavior
Criticism mounted after students from EdUHK put up banners which sent “congratulations” to Undersecretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin after her 25-year-old son plunged to his death from a residential tower in Yau Ma Tei.
Hong Kong is shamed by these separatist students as their behavior is inhumane and makes fun of others’ misery, said Tian Feilong, a legal expert at Beihang University.
“The remarks are entirely disrespectful, against the moral values of society and cold-blooded,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said Friday, according to a Hong Kong government press release.
Mainland netizens expressed outrage, and users of Diba, China’s largest online forum, bombarded the Facebook pages of CUHK with comments warning Hong Kong against independence.
“Hong Kong is a part of China, and this is indivisible. Freedom of speech is not a reason for secession, thank you!” said a user of Diba.
On Tuesday, video footage on Sina Weibo showed a female student at CUHK from the Chinese mainland being confronted as she attempted to take down independence posters from the “democracy wall.”
“If you’re talking about democracy, you can put it up, I can put it off,” she said in English. “It’s my school as well.”
Many netizens on the Chinese mainland praised her “brave” behavior.
“Most students in Hong Kong have not received formal patriotic and political education, so they feel less attached to our motherland than the growing up in the Chinese mainland,” Zhang noted. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1065746.shtml
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