CUHK head Rocky Tuan resigns, with effect from Jan 2025

09-01-2024 14:23 HKT

The president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Rocky Tuan Sung-chi, has resigned.

"As the new governance structure is implemented following the amendment of the CUHK Ordinance, I believe now is an opportune moment for the University to search for a new Vice-Chancellor and President," Tuan wrote in a letter on his decision to step down with effect from January 2025.

The 72-year-old said it's an honor and a privilege for him to serve CUHK since January 2018. "I am deeply grateful to the entire CUHK community for their support throughout my tenure."

John Chai Yat-Chiu, the chairman of the CUHK council, said he received Tuan's letter yesterday (Jan 8).

The university said it is "grateful to Tuan for his leadership and dedicated service over six years of service."

The news came after CUHK's vice-president and secretary Eric Ng Shu-pui, who was considered Tuan's right-hand man, was sacked by the CUHK Council last month, with the Council saying they can no longer trust Ng to support their work.

Ng signed a petition with some 1,200 university alumni in July 2023 to oppose a Legislative Council bill to downsize the CUHK's Governing Council. Tuan has also continuously missed three Legislative Council bills committee meetings on the reform, which drew criticism.

The Legislative Council passed the third reading of a private bill to downsize the 55-strong governing council to 34 members in November. The bill also proposes lowering the ratio of outside and on-campus members to around 2:1.

Tuan, a biomedical scientist, first took up the post of CUHK's vice-chancellor in 2018. His new three-year term as the university's head just started last Monday (Jan 1).

In 2019, Tuan was caught in the crosshairs during a siege of the university amid social unrest.

He went to the protest scenes to seek mediation with officers, who refused to negotiate. The president also met with students in later days and subsequently issued an open letter saying that police unreasonably treated the students.

In 2020, Tuan was a co-signatory of a joint statement that supported the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, while he was also one of the Election Committee members who nominated John Lee Ka-chiu to stand in the Chief Executive election in 2022.

But that did not stop criticisms against Tuan from the pro-establishment camp, who continued to lash out at his performance during the anti-fugitive bill saga.