Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) students’ union has begun the process of disbanding, becoming the latest student group to do so after the unions at Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Hong Kong Baptist University Students’ Union passed a motion to dissolve the group during a meeting on Monday evening, local media outlets reported. Members of the student organisation will soon vote on the motion to decide whether or not to dissolve.
Citing sources, Ming Pao reported that the student union decided to dissolve the group after HKBU did not offer a booth for the union to recruit new members during the freshmen registration day last year.
The university also said in 2021 that it would no longer collect membership fees on behalf of the union, resulting in financial difficulty for the group. HKBU’s student union said at the time that the move would have a great impact on its finances and operations.
Separately, a member of the union were arrested last September over embezzling HK$800,000 of the student union’s funds. The student was convicted and sentenced in June to two years and one month in jail. Following the incident, HKBU withdrew the union’s right to run its shop on campus.
Membership of the union, which was founded in 1968, has dropped from 2,000 students last year to 800 this year.
Hong Kong’s universities began cutting ties with their students unions in the wake of the national security law, meaning the schools stopped providing them assistance and offering them a premise.
Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020 following protests that erupted in June 2019 over an extradition bill. Dozens of civil society groups have shut, and independent media outlets have folded, under the legislation.
Crackdown on student unions
The student union at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUSU) announced in October 2021 that it would disband, marking the start of a wave of dissolutions under the pressure of the national security law.
The union said the decision came after difficulties reconciling professional legal advice and instructions from the university management to register the body with government agencies for the new academic year.
“For 50 years CUSU existed as an independent student organization whose representatives were elected through a democratic process. It is a matter of profound regret that CUSU is now history,” it said in a statement in October 2021.
According to The Collective, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s student union has also dissolved, while the University of Hong Kong (HKU)’s student union has ceased to run.
HKU stopped recognising its student union as a registered student body in 2021 after the group made a declaration to commemorate a man who killed himself after stabbing a police officer on July 1, the anniversary of Hong Kong’s Handover to China, that year.
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