Hong Kong universities are finding students unwilling to stick their heads above the parapet and take on leadership roles in unions, with many putting their reluctance down to Beijing’s imposition of the sweeping national security law, which criminalizes once-legitimate forms of dissent and has cast a chilling effect on freedom of debate.

Some of the fiercest confrontations during 2019′s anti-government demonstrators took place at Hong Kong’s universities, with protesters demanding democratic reform in the city using a number of campuses as bases against riot police.

Tensions culminated in November 2019, as police were trying to storm into the Chinese Univerity of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. PolyU was under a 12-day police siege that eventually led to 1,377 arrests — including 318 who were under 18. The demonstration at PolyU was the only incident throughout the months-long protests that the international aid agency Red Cross said amounted to a humanitarian crisis.

Students’ ambition persisted until November last year — months after Beijing introduced the national security law — when a group of students from CUHK staged an impromptu pro-independence protest on campus that later resulted in eight arrests and disciplinary action against many others.

The current president of the University of Hong Kong’s student union, Edy Jeh, said under the national security law, the risk of assuming a student union post has grown as holding certain events might unwittingly lead to a violation of the law. There were also concerns about the public security apparatus now operating in the semi-autonomous city after the law was implemented.

“Personal safety may be threatened, and some may be worried about being stalked,” she said. “On one hand, I want the student union to continue to thrive; but on another hand, I understand the pressure and worries that are looming in everyone’s minds.”

However, for a student body that was once baptized by fire, there is a growing sense of indifference toward campus politics: only one in eight public universities have found someone to represent students’ voices.

“We will put the interests of our fellow classmates, and the interests of Hongkongers first,” said political science student Isaac Lam, the only candidate president contesting in the upcoming union election at CUHK.

His predecessor, Owen Au, was arrested just last week. Still, Lam said he thought it was still worth joining the election to fight for what an entire generation wants to achieve. There would be no regrets if they were arrested struggling for democracy and freedom, said Law Tsz-wai, also a political science student and who is running for vice president.

Law said he hoped to strengthen the self-identity among Hong Kong people and to continue to express their indignation against the present political reality.

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