The Students' Union Is 'Cut Off' — HKU's 2021 Break with the Student Union and the Council Controversy

Unofficial-history section · Module 14 · Deep-dive No. 4. This article presents claims stratified by strength of evidence, places multiple accounts side by side, and renders no verdict. For living individuals or those connected to the case, names are reproduced as already publicly reported; the account of case proceedings follows court records and media reporting.

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One-line summary: On 13 July 2021, HKU announced it would no longer recognise the on-campus role of the Hong Kong University Students' Union (HKUSU), which had existed for more than a century (founded on 16 October 1912^※). The trigger was a motion the Council passed with 30 votes in favour and 2 abstentions^※, expressing "profound sadness" over, and "gratitude for the sacrifice" of, Mr. Leung, the man who fatally stabbed himself after attacking a police officer on 1 July. Four Council members were subsequently arrested in August 2021 and, in September 2023, pleaded guilty to incitement to wound, each sentenced to 24 months (later reduced to 15 months on appeal)^※.

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# A Century-Old Institution: What Is the HKU Students' Union?

The Hong Kong University Students' Union (HKUSU, "the Students' Union" below) was founded on 16 October 1912^※, about a month after HKU's first academic year began, initially under the name "Hong Kong University Union." It is one of the oldest university students' union organisations in Hong Kong. In 1949, the union formally registered with police as an independent society and adopted its current name; "Unity, Independence" became its motto^※, laying the legal foundation for more than seventy years of operation independent of the university administration.

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, the Students' Union was known for publishing its magazine Undergrad (學苑, first published in 1952, switching to Chinese in 1959^※) and for participating in social causes and inter-collegiate joint statements. The union was also a founding member of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), established in 1958^※, and took part in the Diaoyu Islands movement and Chinese-language movement of the "fiery era," as well as in the 1989 solidarity actions around Tiananmen (for the century-long thread of student organisations, see Rise and Fall of Student Organisations; for background on the fiery era and Tiananmen, see The Fiery Era and 1989 Solidarity).

The relationship between the Students' Union and the university administration was not always smooth. In February 2015, HKUSU was the first to hold a referendum on withdrawing from HKFS, and the withdrawal was approved^※, prompting PolyU, Baptist University, and CityU to follow suit in leaving the federation — described by the South China Morning Post as the "biggest split" in HKFS's 57-year history. Before the 2021 controversy, the university's formal recognition of the union itself had continued for more than a century; the union held physical spaces on campus including the Students' Union Composite Building, the Council chamber, and the "Democracy Wall," and sustained its finances through fees the university collected on its behalf. It was precisely this institutionalised presence that was dismantled piece by piece in 2021.

To understand what followed, it helps to first clarify the union's internal structure: the union had a "Council," its highest authority and oversight body; an "Executive Committee" (干事局) responsible for day-to-day administration; and several hundred affiliated societies^※. It was the Council that passed the mourning motion on 7 July 2021, while it was the Executive Committee that announced its mass resignation two days later — two distinct bodies with distinct mandates. This distinction is why those who passed the motion and those who resigned over it were not the same people, and it explains why those arrested and prosecuted were concentrated among members who had attended the Council meeting.

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# April 2021: The University First Cuts Financial and Facility Ties

The earliest sign of the controversy appeared in late April 2021, about two and a half months before the July motion. On 30 April 2021, HKU's Registrar sent a letter to all students^※ announcing three immediate measures: the university would stop collecting membership fees on the union's behalf, terminate the financial-management services provided to the union, and take back management of the union's premises and other facilities.

The university's statement attributed its reasons to the union "repeatedly using the campus as a platform for political propaganda," making "inflammatory and potentially unlawful statements," and levelling "false accusations" against the administration, undermining trust built over many years. The statement said "the university is not a place beyond the law and has a duty to safeguard the well-being of all staff and students"^※. This action effectively severed the union's financial and premises ties with the administration, though its formal-recognition status had not yet been revoked.

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# 1 July: The 1 July Incident and Mr. Leung

On 1 July 2021, the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover, a man (Mr. Leung, then aged 50) stabbed a police officer with a knife in Causeway Bay and then fatally stabbed himself. The incident triggered widespread controversy in Hong Kong society that same day; police characterised it as a lone-wolf attack on an officer, while some reports interpreted the incident against the backdrop of political tension in Hong Kong following the implementation of the National Security Law (effective 2020). Different parties characterise Mr. Leung's conduct and motives in sharply different terms; this article presents these accounts side by side and renders no verdict.

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# 7 July: The Council's Emergency Meeting and the Mourning Motion

On 7 July 2021^※, the HKUSU Council held an emergency meeting and passed a motion concerning the 1 July incident. According to multiple media reports and subsequent court documents, the motion included: "profound sadness" (express deep sadness) over Mr. Leung's death, condolences to his family, and an expression of "appreciation for his sacrifice for Hong Kong" (appreciate his sacrifice to Hong Kong).

The motion was announced on the union's social media immediately after passing and quickly drew strong criticism in Hong Kong society. Then-Chief Executive Ms. Lam promptly issued a public statement, saying the motion made her "angry, in three capacities: as Chief Executive, as HKU's Visitor, and as an ordinary member of the public"^※.

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# 9 July: Apology and the Executive Committee's Mass Resignation

Only two days after the motion passed, on the evening of 9 July 2021^※, then-union president Kwok Wing-ho held a press conference to apologise publicly, read a statement withdrawing the motion, stressed that the union had not intended to encourage or glorify any unlawful act, and apologised to the public; the entire Executive Committee resigned late that night. From the motion's passage, through the public outcry and the Chief Executive's statement, to the Executive Committee's resignation, less than 48 hours elapsed — yet the apology and withdrawal did not halt subsequent action by the administration and law-enforcement authorities; instead, they preceded a series of measures with more lasting institutional consequences. This gap between "withdrawn, yet still pursued" is one focal point of the dispute that followed.

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# 13 July: HKU Announces It Will "No Longer Recognise" the Union

On 13 July 2021^※, HKU formally issued a statement announcing it would "no longer recognise the existing on-campus role of the Hong Kong University Students' Union (as an independently registered society)," while also announcing a "serious investigation" into the Council incident, and clearing all material from the union's "Democracy Wall" notice board.

HKU official statement (13 July 2021): the university "strongly condemns [the union's] conduct in openly glorifying violence, challenging the moral bottom line of society, and damaging the reputation and interests of the entire HKU family." (Source: Sina Military, 13 July 2021)^※

This marked the end of the university's formal recognition of the union. Since its founding in 1912^※ and independent registration in 1949^※, the union's institutional relationship with HKU had continued for about 109 years before being severed at this point.

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# 15–21 July: The Students' Union Composite Building Is Reclaimed

Two days after announcing the end of recognition, the administration issued the union an ultimatum on 15 July^※, requiring it to vacate the Students' Union Composite Building within seven days. On 21 July, the union moved out; workers changed the building's locks that same day and security personnel stood watch outside^※; the Council chamber was also sealed off, which the administration explained as being for "renovation." The loss of the Composite Building meant the union had lost its physical base for operating on campus.

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# 16 July – August: National Security Police Search and Campus Bans

In its 4 August statement, HKU Council characterised the campus ban as an "immediate risk-control measure," citing the reasoning that the students' presence would expose the university to "serious legal and reputational risk." The statement said the union's conduct amounted to "serious misconduct," an attempt to "glorify and excuse an act of violence"^※. The administration subsequently engaged with the affected students individually, and on 2 September announced that the ban would no longer be enforced against 18 of the 44, while the remaining 26 stayed barred from campus^※.

The ban and the break with the union also drew dissenting voices within HKU itself. Legal scholar Eric Cheung Tat-ming announced his resignation from the university Council, criticising the measures as a violation of due process^※, and other Council members signed a joint statement calling for the ban to be withdrawn; a group of HKU graduates also launched a petition that gathered more than 1,050 signatures^※ criticising the Council's decision. At the same time, the material on the union's "Democracy Wall" notice board was cleared; by September 2021, both the union building and the Democracy Wall stood bare, symbolising the physical retreat of the union's spaces for public expression.

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# The Arrest and Trial of Four Former Council Members

On 18 August 2021^※, National Security Police arrested four former HKUSU Council members, all enrolled students aged 18 to 20 at the time of arrest. According to subsequent court documents, their identities and positions at the time were as follows:

The four were initially suspected of "advocating terrorism" under Article 27 of the National Security Law (maximum sentence 10 years) and were granted bail pending trial. After several adjournments, on 11 September 2023^※ the prosecution withdrew the "advocating terrorism" charge, and the four defendants pleaded guilty instead to an alternative charge of "incitement to wound with intent" (maximum sentence 7 years).

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# The Original Two-Year Sentence: How Did the Judge Assess the Motion?

On 30 October 2023, District Court judge Tse Sum sentenced the four defendants to 24 months' imprisonment each^※ <!-- translator-note: the judge's name 谢沉 is rendered here phonetically as "Tse Sum"; no official English spelling appears in the sourced material, so this should be verified against court records before publication --->. The original sentencing reasoning is key to understanding the dispute over this case: the judge found the four had "acted in concert," holding that they had used HKU's "most representative official channel" to incite, which amounted to "abuse of power, misuse of a public instrument," and that the motion had "reopened social division and hatred of police"; the judge also cited the defendants' role-model function as student leaders, reasoning that this risked encouraging young people toward unlawful conduct. The original sentence took 35 months as its starting point, reduced to 24 months after credit for factors including the guilty pleas.

It is worth noting that the basis of conviction in this case was "incitement to wound" under common law, not a National Security Law offence — the prosecution withdrew the National Security Law charge of "advocating terrorism" before trial. This shift means that although the case originated with the intervention of national-security law-enforcement authorities, the final judicial finding rested on a more conventional criminal charge.

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# Sentence Reduced on Appeal: Why Did the Court of Appeal Overturn the "Misuse of a Public Instrument" Finding?

All four defendants appealed their sentences. In September 2024, the Court of Appeal of the High Court of Hong Kong allowed the appeal, reducing the sentence from 24 months to 15 months^※. The Court of Appeal's reasons for the reduction diverged from the original trial on several key points:

The appeal was heard by a panel of three judges. A separate legal dispute arose over whether the defendants could receive remission for good behaviour and early release^※: one defendant's application for a writ of habeas corpus was dismissed by the High Court. According to further reporting, a former student leader was denied the customary one-third sentence remission and early release for good behaviour in prison, a decision involving the National Security Committee^※ — an arrangement that makes the service of sentence in national-security-related cases differ from that in ordinary criminal cases. After the reduction, Cheung King-sang, Kwok Wing-ho, and To Lam Shing-hang completed their sentences and were released in November 2024^※.

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# Was This a "Dissolution"? Multiple Interpretations, Side by Side

After the break, interpretations of the union's legal status diverged among different parties:

The administration's position (official): HKU only announced it would "no longer recognise" the union's on-campus role and did not itself "dissolve" the union. As a society independently registered under the Societies Ordinance, the union's legal continuation was a matter for the union itself to decide.

Some media and academic observers: because the administration simultaneously ended fee collection and reclaimed all venues and facilities, the union had in practice lost the conditions needed to operate, tantamount to being "forced into dissolution." According to multiple reports, the union announced it had ceased operations around 13 July 2021^※, ending an institution that had lasted 109 years.

The union's own members: several Council members were arrested or barred from campus, limiting their scope for public response; available material shows no collective statement by members on the union's future operation.

These accounts are presented side by side; this article renders no verdict.

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# After the Union's Exit, Who Represents Students?

After recognition was severed, the union's former administrative and representative functions did not simply disappear; they were absorbed into a structure led by the administration. According to an official HKU press release, the administration established a "Co-curricular Support Office" (CCSO), run by the Registry^※, to take over some of the union's former functions.

According to media compilations, the roughly 122 affiliated societies (departmental unions, hall student unions, interest groups, etc.) formerly under the union were reregistered with CCSO^※ before the break. In substance, this transfer moved the administrative umbilical cord of student societies from an "independently registered, student-run union" to "an administration department" — giving the administration direct control over affiliated societies' venues, funding, and activity approvals. As of the time of writing (July 2026), HKU has not restored a university-wide students' union in the earlier sense — independently registered, holding the Composite Building, and with fees collected on its behalf; day-to-day student representation now runs mainly through affiliated societies and the administration's support structure.

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# Chain Reaction: Six Hong Kong Universities' Student Unions Cut Off in the Same Period

HKU's break was not an isolated case, but the start of a chain reaction that swept through Hong Kong's major universities in 2021–2022. According to media surveys, all six of HKU, CUHK, CityU, Lingnan, PolyU, and Baptist University stopped collecting union fees during this period^※, with several also requiring their unions to vacate campus facilities.

Among these, the CUHK Students' Union announced its dissolution in October 2021, after about 50 years^※, its statement expressing "profound regret" over outside pressure. This wave of institution-level breaks coincided with change at the higher, cross-institution level: the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), the umbrella body for the various unions, had already shrunk from 8 to 4 member institutions after the 2015 wave of withdrawals, and finally announced its dissolution in 2026 with only one institution still active (see Rise and Fall of Student Organisations for details).

In the same period, another highly symbolic legacy of the campus student movement — the Pillar of Shame, which had stood on campus for 24 years after the union voted in 1998 to place it there permanently — was also removed by the administration overnight in December 2021 (see The Pillar of Shame's Removal for details); with the union severed, the annual cleaning ceremony it had traditionally hosted for the sculpture also ceased. The two threads are intertwined in timing and background.

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# Full Timeline: From the Break to Release (2021–2024)

The table below compiles the key milestones already covered in this article's sections, each supported by public sources, for an overview of the full course of events; sources for each entry are in the corresponding body paragraphs.

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# Related Reading

• Rise and Fall of Student Organisations — HKUSU, Undergrad, and HKFS (1912–2026) — the century-long parent article for this piece, covering the 2015 HKFS withdrawal and the 2026 HKFS dissolution.
• The Pillar of Shame's Last Night — HKU's 2021 Removal of the Sculpture — another campus event in the same year, in December, against the same backdrop.
• The Fiery Era and 1989 Solidarity — the historical context of the union's earlier social engagement.

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