HKU Becomes World’s Most International University by Counting Mainland Students as International Students

HK University main building on Feb. 18, 2023. Bill Cox/The Epoch Times

In January 2023, Time Higher Education (UK) announced the ranking of the most international universities in the world in 2023. Hong Kong universities rank high in “internationalization” by counting mainland faculty and students as international faculty and students. Zheng Yanxiong, the Director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office, invited senior council members of 11 Hong Kong tertiary education institutions to a spring dinner on Feb. 15, and said he hoped that they would continue to be internationalized.

In the Times Higher Education’s 2023 ranking of the most international universities in the world, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) is ranked first in the world, the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is ranked fourth, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is ranked fifth, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is ranked sixth. The Internationalization scale has four components: 25 percent of the total score for the proportion of a university’s international reputation, 25 percent of the score for the proportion of international staff, 25 percent of the score for the proportion of international students, and 25 percent of the score for the proportion of co-authorship.

All universities in Hong Kong have long counted mainland Chinese as part of their “international” student and staff population. For example, of the 1,114 professors at HKU in 2021/2022, 335 are from mainland China, accounting for about 30 percent of all professors and 44.7 percent of non-local professors. In addition, the University has 33,702 students in all programs, of which 10,414 are from Mainland China, accounting for 31 percent of all students and 76.7 percent of the non-local student population.

Benson Wong Wai-kwok, a former assistant professor of politics and international relations at Baptist University, said in an interview with The Epoch Times on Feb. 15 that the Hong Kong National Security Law has caused many academics to leave Hong Kong, and that Hong Kong’s tertiary institutions are no longer internationalized.

On Jan. 30, the University Grants Committee (UGC) announced that a total of 399 faculty members of eight UGC-funded universities resigned in the same academic year; the resignation rate reached 7.4 percent, a new high since the 2009/10 academic year, and also a new high after the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.

Wong analyzed that Zheng wanted to use the internationalization of universities as a cover to hide Hong Kong’s “one country, one system.” Moreover, the internationalization of universities, he said, does not mean Hong Kong’s tertiary institutions have academic and research freedom, nor does it suggest that the governance of universities is open and transparent. On the contrary, the universities will only develop in response to the needs of mainland China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such as in the area of artificial intelligence and the chip industry.

He also pointed out that based on Zheng’s political background,  Zheng’s remarks were united front tactics for the university management and council chairmen.

Zheng is famous for saying, “if foreign media is trustworthy, then a pig can climb up a tree.”

According to public information, Zheng officially joined the CCP in May 1986. In 2011, Zheng, then Shantou secretary of the municipal CCP, used armed police to violently suppress and arrest Wukan villagers who protested against the village officials who sold land to developers without compensating the villagers properly. A representative of villagers,  Xue Jinbo, died in custody.

At a press conference, Zheng attacked the villagers of Wukan for seeking assistance from the foreign media, saying that “If foreign media is trustworthy, then a pig can climb up a tree.”

In May 2018, Zheng became the Standing Deputy Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and later became the Standing Committee Secretary General of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee. In July 2020, he was appointed as the director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong. On Jan. 14, 2023, the State Council of the CCP appointed Zheng Yanxiong to replace Luo Huining as the director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office.