Four universities in Hong Kong "cut" with the student union and decided to stop collecting student union dues

　　[Global Times Special Correspondent in Hong Kong, Ye Lan] After City University, Chinese University and the University of Hong Kong announced earlier that they would stop collecting membership fees on behalf of the Student Union, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University has adopted the same approach.

　　The Student Union of Polytechnic University stated on the 13th that it has received a notice from the school that it will stop collecting student union dues.

In response to media enquiries, PolyU stated that the Student Union is a local independent registered organization and the Student Union should handle its own financial affairs, including the collection of membership fees.

A Hong Kong media recalled on the 14th that PolyU became an "arsenal" during the "black riots" in November 2019. At that time, a large number of thugs occupied the campus and fought fiercely with the police. Afterwards, the campus was devastated.

However, at the end of March this year, the "Huan Yao" of the PolyU Student Union published a post called "Don't Forget the Siege, Guard Our City" to beautify the "black storm", claiming that it would distribute the "PolyU Siege" on the flyover between PolyU and Hung Hom MTR Station. The postcards also claimed that PolyU students "unforgettable scenes of conflicts" and urged students to obtain and collect them.

In June of this year, Huang Yuanlin, foreign secretary of the PolyU Student Union and spokesperson for "Xianxue Ideological and Political", was arrested on suspicion of propagating and publishing unauthorized assembly.

The Student Union issued a statement on the same day, falsely claiming that “the police used arrests to scare the public and aimed to make everyone a obedience to themselves for a day” and threatened to “severely condemn the police's indiscriminate arrests”.

Zhang Xinyi, vice president of the PolyU Student Union, said that the school met with the student union two weeks ago and said that it received complaints that the statement criticizing the police was “extreme”.

　　Many universities in Hong Kong have decided to stop collecting membership fees for the student union.

In August last year, the City University refused to perform related work on the grounds of "auditing issues."

In February this year, the Chinese University stated that in response to the remarks made by the cabinet-designate "Shuo Ye" that affected the reputation of the school, using the campus as a platform for political propaganda may be illegal, and decided to suspend the collection of membership fees for the student union.

The University of Hong Kong stated in April this year that the student union has become increasingly politicized in recent years, damaging the overall interests and reputation of the university, and therefore stopped collecting membership fees.

　　Lecturer Chen Weiqiang of the School of Professional and Continuing Education of PolyU said that the Student Union’s financial income has always been quite substantial. It is reported that the tuition fee paid by each student at the time of enrollment already includes the membership fee to the Student Union.

In order to increase the value of the funds, some students will even purchase properties and make various investments outside, such as buying insurance, but these investments are not known to all students who have paid their membership fees.

During the "black storm" in 2019, many university student unions embezzled funds privately to support the mob.

A former secretary of the Student Union of the University of Hong Kong revealed that when the university collects tuition fees at the beginning of the semester every year, it will collect the membership fee of 140 Hong Kong dollars per person for the student union, and the annual income is about 1.4 million Hong Kong dollars.

This is one of the important sources of income for the Student Union. The suspension of the collection of membership fees by the school is estimated to have a "catastrophic impact" on the finances of the Student Union, and it is intended to "uproot" the Student Union.

He further explained that the University Finance Department has a roster of more than 10,000 students, and has an inline system to record the payment of membership dues per person; the school no longer collects membership dues, and the student union is technically difficult to collect because there is no roster to follow up the collection. It is also difficult to notify all members to pay the membership dues.

　　In addition, the University of Hong Kong announced that it will no longer recognize the status of the Student Union and continues to ferment in Hong Kong.

Chen Weiqiang analyzed that the university student union has changed from an independent registered society to a civil society. It will not have the right to interfere in school administration, and will not be allowed to participate in various important meetings of the school and cancel voting rights. Even if necessary, the student union has always rented places and the school will also Recoverable.

Many sources of income from the school will be stopped.

Some Hong Kong media analyzed that the Hong Kong University Student Union has a long history and has been extensively involved in the management of school affairs for a long time.

The University Council of the University of Hong Kong has seats in the Student Union, and other university governance committees, such as the Student Affairs Committee, Dormitory Committee, and Disciplinary Committee, have a varying number of seats in the Student Union.

However, these treatments are not inevitable, but are based on abiding by the law and regulations.

The article said that after the University of Hong Kong announced more than two months ago that it would no longer collect membership fees for the student union and withdraw the management rights of the venue, it announced that it would no longer recognize its role in the school. "This means that the student conference seats in many committees in the school have been All canceled. Students will lose these important platforms and are destined to decline."

　　"The time has come for accountability", a comment published on the 14th in Hong Kong's "Bashi's" newspaper said, why did the Hong Kong University Student Council Council dare to issue such a statement after the Hong Kong National Security Law came into effect?

"I believe the reason is that college students thought the police did not dare to arrest." In November 2019, the rioters hid in CUHK, PolyU, Hong Kong University and other places, and then blocked the roads near the school. They believed that the police did not dare to enter the university to arrest people, but "dare not Enforcing the law on college students will make colleges a place outside the law, and more and more college students will become violent elements, which in turn harms them, makes them more radical and sinks deeper and deeper."

　　Hong Kong's "Sing Tao Daily" published an editorial on the 14th under the title "University is to get back on track, the roots of riots must be eliminated", saying that the school can no longer recognize the legal status of the student union in the school. One of the reasons is that the student union is no longer a normal student body. It is a radical political organization that blatantly conducts illegal activities and incites violence and terror; the second reason is that the student union is not only politicized and radicalized, but a small number of radical students who hold the organization use the university as an umbrella to attract mobs from outside the school to station, and the campus is devastated. .

The university has no choice but to resolutely eliminate this political organization that has seriously damaged the school.

The article said that the Student Union once brought the turmoil to the campus, and the lessons of the Polytechnic University and the Chinese University were the most painful.

After this catastrophe, all universities understand that they must not let the riots reignite again. “You must dare to cut off the roots of the campus riots before you can truly return to the right track and develop healthily”.