HK Observer: Occupy Fallout

Robert Carroll

Following the Occupy fallout, Hong Kong has recently been declared as a core security interest for China by a senior PLA official.
We can surely expect keener monitoring of political dissent here. As another consequence of Occupy Central, we should also expect a ratcheting up of pressure on media and academics to toe party lines.
The former Dean of Law at the University of Hong Kong, Johannes Chan Man-mun said on Tuesday that since November there has been a concerted campaign by pro-Beijing newspapers to try to discredit him and other outspoken academics; an attempt to prevent them from achieving the highest managing roles at HKU. This was after it was said Chan was being recommended for a top post a the university.
This is a matter of some concern not just in the interests of academic freedom but as a potential threat to HKU’s outstanding world ranking.
Chan oversaw a significant rise in the Law faculty he supervised, yet he is being criticized for running a faculty which conducted poor research. As a prominent defender of Hong Kong’s freedoms he is surely being targeted more for that stance than for his former faculty’s performance.
Doesn’t this mean that the maintenance of one of the territory’s greatest success stories should better be trimmed than be allowed to be seen as a beacon of free expression in the view of Beijing’s men here?
It’s curious that Hong Kong’s – and Asia’s –
richest man has revealed his hand at last in regard to his loyalty to the city and China, or rather his lack of it by moving his head office out to a tax haven in the Caribbean.
Of course he has long been heavily investing overseas so it’s not a complete surprise. However coming so soon after Occupy Central and all the mainland exhortations to be patriotic, what sort of message is that to pull up stumps in such sensitive times?
One of the two biggest political groupings the pro-Beijing, Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong is about to have a leadership re-shuffle. DAB head Tam Yiu-chung is set to retire hopefully paving the way for a younger generation within its ranks. With long established pan-democrats likely to have to move aside for the young guns at the next elections, this fresh injection of young talent may be just what the city needs to shake up what has become a stagnant political scene.