The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has not arranged an election study tour to Taiwan this year, despite running previous trips to witness the self-ruled island’s presidential and parliamentary polls.
In 2016 and 2020, the university’s General Education team organised Taiwan election study tours, featuring visits to political parties’ offices and discussions with student activists. The trips attracted students from various faculties, including social science, engineering, and law.
There will be no such HKU trip to see Saturday’s pivotal election this year, as the university cited periodic “changes in destinations.” However, a source at the Centre of Development and Resources for Students (CEDARS) – which oversees the General Education team – told HKFP that staff who planned previous tours had left, and the current team lacked organisational manpower. They requested anonymity in order to protect their job.
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Politics was another consideration, they added. While the source said they were unaware of any direct pressure from the university, they said in Cantonese that they felt they should be “careful in this kind of political atmosphere.”
In a reply to HKFP, the university’s media relations office said CEDARS was “committed to planning and implementing experiential learning opportunities and study tours that are tailored to meet specific objectives.”
“As part of the continuous improvement process, there would be changes in destinations and activities from time to time,” the response read.
The General Education team’s Taiwan trip had proved popular in the past, with the number of applications exceeding the quota of 30 students, the source told HKFP.
Taiwan will hold its closely-watched presidential election on Saturday. When opinion polls stopped publishing 10 days ahead of the vote, they were led by William Lai Ching-te, the chairperson of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), followed by Hou Yu-ih of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT). In third place was Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party, which seeks to provide a middle-of-the-road alternative to the two leading parties.
What do Taiwan’s parties stand for?
The liberal, ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supports a strong Taiwanese identity and opposes policies that could lead to unification. It seeks to keep Beijing at bay and claims the island is already independent, making a formal declaration unnecessary. The conservative Kuomintang (KMT) favours warmer ties and stronger trade partnerships with Beijing, opposing policies that could lead to a formal declaration of independence. The centre-left Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) considers itself an alternative third party between the two frontrunners.
How does the vote work?
Voting hours run from 8am to 4pm, with 19.5 million eligible voters casting paper ballots by hand. Results are expected on election night. It is a direct, first-past-the-post system. Taiwanese vote three times – for a president & vice-president, for a local lawmaker, and a “party list” – a wider list of lawmakers who are given seats based on the overall proportion of votes won.
Is Taiwan part of China?
Taiwan is not recognised at the UN as a sovereign country, though some small states recognise it as a nation. The Republic of China (ROC) government has ruled Taiwan since 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II, ending 50 years of occupation. The ROC authorities fully retreated to the island in 1949 as the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) defeated them in the Civil War and took control of the mainland. Beijing has since claimed Taiwan is one of its provinces and has threatened to unify it by force if necessary, despite never ruling the island.
What is at stake in this election?
Saturday’s poll will affect 23 million Taiwanese, and is set to shape the geopolitical posture of an island sat between two superpowers. Beijing has warned that a vote for DPP “separatists” is a vote for war, having stepped up military drills around Taiwan, spread electoral misinformation, and sanctioned Western defence firms over arms sales to Taipei. But it is unclear whether a KMT government would guarantee peace or appease Beijing, whilst the DPP says only its defensive stance can prevent a conflict.
Pundits say the elections hold geopolitical significance and will determine the future of Taiwan’s relations with Beijing. Voters will also elect all 113 seats in the legislature on the same day.
A former HKU student who joined the trip in 2016, when outgoing president Tsai Ing-wen won for the DPP for the first time, said she had not been familiar with Taiwan politics at the time and saw the tour as a good opportunity to learn more.
The itinerary for that year’s trip showed visits to the offices of the two main camps, the DPP and the KMT, as well as the Social Democratic Party and the New Power Party – both founded following the 2014 Sunflower Movement, when protesters occupied the legislature to oppose a trade agreement seen as favouring Beijing’s interests over Taipei’s.
The General Education team also arranged for participants to meet with Sunflower Movement activists and attend election rallies.
“The biggest takeaway was witnessing the vibrant civic engagement,” the former HKU student, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “It was very touching that people there had a vote, and that they really wanted to make a difference with their vote.”
“In Hong Kong, you rarely have this situation,” she added.
‘Critical educational value’
Hongkongers travelling to Taiwan to witness the elections is nothing new, nor is it limited to tours organised by universities. For as long as Taiwan has held direct presidential elections, Hongkongers have made the short flight to the island to watch Taiwanese people go to the polls.
Hongkongers’ right to vote for the city’s leader had long been a demand of the local pro-democracy movement, which opposed the fact that only a small circle of 1,000-odd political elites can vote to select the chief executive.
But since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 in the wake of protests and unrest the year before, demonstrations have quietened. Scores of activists have been arrested and civil society groups have disbanded under pressure.
Electoral systems have also been overhauled, with only “patriots” allowed to run in leadership races, from the district-level polls to the chief executive elections. The city’s current leader, John Lee, was the sole candidate in the small-circle race in 2022.
Liu Dongshu, an assistant professor who researches Chinese politics at the City University of Hong Kong, said he believed Hongkongers’ interest in witnessing Taiwan’s elections was due to the limited scale of free elections in Hong Kong.
“Taiwan has been viewed by many people as an example of democracy in Chinese society, so it seems natural for some Hongkongers to come to Taiwan to see how ‘real elections,’ in their eyes, work,” Liu told HKFP.
Study tours like the one organised by HKU, he added, have “very critical educational value.”
“It is very useful for our students to understand how Taiwan society and politics work. We may agree or disagree with views from Taiwan or the style of Taiwan democracy, but it is important to understand their rationale,” Liu said.
Both the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University organised trips to Taiwan for journalism students to learn about election reporting this year, as it has done previously.
Academic freedom
Hong Kong’s university campuses today cut a contrast with the past, when student groups chanted pro-democracy slogans and papered academic buildings with political posters.
In the wake of Beijing’s national security law, several student unions have disbanded or had their ties with institutions cut. Some universities have also introduced mandatory national security courses.
Two years ago, in incidents seen internationally as a blow to free speech on Hong Kong’s campuses, school authorities at multiple universities removed monuments paying tribute to victims of the Tiananmen crackdown. Commemoration of the 1989 incident, when hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters died when China’s People’s Liberation Army dispersed them, is banned in mainland China.
At HKU, the Pillar of Shame statue – which had stood on campus since 1998 – was dismantled in an early morning operation in December 2021, while students were away on break. It was replaced later with potted plants and seating. Months before that, a notice board known as the Democracy Wall was stripped bare.
“Student activism is certainly restricted, as shown by the decline or even dissolving of student unions,” Liu said.
Not holding the study trip, Liu said, may “make people question the long-term perspective of academic freedom, although its immediate impact on freedom on campus might still be minimum.”
Edward Cho, a 23-year-old history student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who is flying to Taiwan to observe the elections under his own steam, said he was making the trip because he wanted to witness an exercise in democracy that does not exist in Hong Kong.
Although travelling to the island alone, he said he planned to meet up with friends from Hong Kong who were going there for the same purpose.
“Elections in Hong Kong have become a performance,” Cho said, adding that he wanted to compare the atmosphere in Taiwan with that of the city’s restricted District Council elections in December.
The opposition-free race resulted in a record low turnout, and the city lacked the colourful campaigns that led up to the event, when candidates in years past would interact with residents and rally for votes.
“Hong Kong does not have an election with such a good atmosphere. There is no candidate that can represent you,” Cho said.
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