University of Hong Kong to fire pro-democracy activist and professor Benny Tai

One of the co-founders of the 2014 Umbrella U+Movement, professor Benny Tai has been at the forefront of Hong Kongers efforts to resist the growing suppression of democratic freedoms by the central Chinese leadership.

Despite his outspoken views against the govenrment, Tai held a role as a professor within the University of Hong Kong’s law department since 1991. Now, however, amid a National Security Law that makes figures like Tai susceptible to arrest, the university’s council has voted 18-2 to remove Tai from their faculty.

On Tuesday, the Hong Kong University council voted to have Tai fired for misconduct. In a press release, the HKU said that the move was taken “following the stringent and impartial due process, and after careful deliberations and considerations,” adding that it hoped the public would understand that this is “an internal personnel matter of the University and that the autonomy of the institution should be respected”.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Tai said the decision to remove him was not made by the university but by forces outside.

“The decision to dismiss me is not by the university of Hong Kong, but by forces outside the university through its agents. This marks the end of academic freedom in Hong Kong. The teaching and research staff of academic institutions in Hong Kong can hardly be free to make controversial remarks to the public and on certain political or social controversial matters. Hong Kong's academic institutions can no longer protect their members from internal and external interference.”

“If there is still doubts about whether the ‘one country, one system’ has come to Hong Kong, my case should be enough to relieve it. I am very grateful to the university of Hong Kong for nurturing me as a law student, law teacher, legal scholar and guardian of the rule of law. I feel heartache when I see my beloved university sink. However, I will continue my research and teaching work on the rule of law in a different capacity, and will not stop fighting for the rule of law in Hong Kong. I am confident that in the future, I will see a free Hong Kong University reborn,” he posted.