The newly elected cabinet of the Chinese University of Hong Kong student union resigned on its first day in office, following a dispute that led to university management cutting ties with the group.

Union president Isaac Lam said on Monday that the university administration had warned it would cut ties with other student bodies if the union members did not resign. Lam added that the cabinet members and their families had been harassed and received death threats in recent days.

The decision to resign was unanimously adopted by the 12 cabinet members on Saturday, Lam said, describing the decision as a “helpless” one – meaning they had no other choice.

Later on Monday, the CUHK administration denied that it had sought to intimidate or isolate the student union or any other student organization. The university issued its statement about cutting ties with the union solely because of “potentially unlawful and inaccurate statements” made by group members in their election manifesto and on other occasions, it said.

“The university expresses regret that the student union executive committee is misrepresenting these arrangements and measures as intimidation and an intent to affect other student organizations,” CUHK said.

At Monday’s press conference announcing the student cabinet’s decision, Lam bowed in a gesture of apology to the approximately 4,000 CUHK students who had voted for the cabinet, which was known as Syzygia

CUHK last week announced that it would suspend members of the student union executive committee from their positions in all university committees and require the union to register as an independent society or company in order to assume its own legal responsibilities.

The decision was made after Syzygia made statements in its election manifesto that the university warned may violate Hong Kong’s national security law.

In a meeting with student representatives after this decision was announced, Lam said, administrators hinted that if Syzygia continued to provide services to students using the title of CUHK Student Union, the university would consider penalizing other student organizations in the same way.

This may have included taking back the two campus rooms used by student media organizations, Lam added.

The student union may be reduced to a “welfare society” which does not discuss social or political issues in the future, Syzygia’s external vice president Law Tsz-wai told Apple Daily. “The [student union] being concerned about society is actually our original sin.”

Syzygia withdrew its controversial manifesto the day after the university suspended recognition and deleted all other content on its social media pages.

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