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Olympic champion Vivian Kong has studied at some of the world’s top universities. Photo: Xinhua
Olympic champion Vivian Kong has studied at some of the world’s top universities. Photo: Xinhua
Hong Kong fencing queen Vivian Kong’s academic paper sparks debate after Olympic success
- Kong’s 2021 master’s thesis credits Beijing’s ‘patriots-only’ overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system with putting city on right path
Elizabeth Cheung
Published: 9:23pm, 3 Aug 2024
Hong Kong fencing queen Vivian Kong Man-wai has found herself making the news with her academic analysis of local politics after her gold medal win at the Paris Olympics catapulted her to international fame.
In her 2021 master’s thesis circulating online on Saturday, she wrote that Beijing’s “patriots-only” overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system following the anti-government protests of 2019 had put the city back on the right track.
Kong also argued that some “anti-China disrupters” had misinterpreted the concept of “one country” and exploited the city’s elections to enter the political system, resulting in a possible constitutional crisis.
The thesis, written in Chinese and titled “Occupy Central and Its Effect on Hong Kong Election Reform”, was submitted to Beijing’s Renmin University in 2021 for a master’s degree in constitutional and administrative law.
The paper has been circulating on Reddit-like LIHKG, an online forum popular among protesters during the 2019 unrest.
Kong’s name matches that of the thesis’ author. The Post has reached out to Kong for comment.
The gold medallist touched on Hong Kong’s colonial history, and studied the relationship between the city’s Basic Law mini-constitution and the country’s constitution.
She also explored the large-scale protests that swept Hong Kong over the past decade, such as the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement in 2014 and the 2019 social unrest.
She wrote that the protests revealed misconceptions about the constitutional order among some Hongkongers who prioritised “two systems” over “one country” in the “one country, two systems” governing principle.
Kong hailed Beijing’s bid to revamp Hong Kong’s electoral system in 2021, saying it ensured only “patriots” could hold power in getting the city back on the right track.
The overhaul slashed the number of directly elected seats and required all hopefuls to be vetted first by officials to confirm their “patriotism”.
“[The move] can plug the legal loopholes, improve the one country, two systems principle based on the city’s situation, and prevent the anti-China forces disrupting Hong Kong from taking power,” she wrote.
Other misconceptions included Hongkongers’ tendency to place international human rights covenants and laws above the Basic Law, the fencer said.
Kong argued the growing use of protests by some Hongkongers to threaten or bargain with authorities had arisen because Beijing had compromised on several occasions.
That included the government’s move to shelve a domestic national security bill after 500,000 people took to the streets in 2003, as well as the political reform in 2010 where Beijing adopted a compromise proposal floated by the Democratic Party following rounds of negotiations.
She dismissed the notion of “genuine universal suffrage” – as demanded by activists in the Occupy movement and the 2019 protests – as a “pseudo-proposition”.
Vivian Kong’s thesis explored the large-scale protests that swept Hong Kong over the past decade, including the 2019 social unrest. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
It was wrong for the Occupy founders to define universal suffrage with international standards, she said, citing the United Nations’ position that not all countries should adopt the same election systems wholesale.
“Hong Kong’s chaos and illegal acts in recent years to pursue so-called genuine universal suffrage had already posed a threat to national security,” she wrote.
Kong’s thesis triggered fierce debate online, with some internet users mocking her as “the future chief executive” given her Beijing-friendly stance.
“I can tell you are an enigmatic person from your thesis,” one user commented on Kong’s Instagram post.
Other commenters, however, called for respect of her contributions on the sports front and to avoid mixing it with politics.
“She is an athlete, please don’t politicise her. A thesis doesn’t mean everything,” one wrote.
The 30-year-old épéeist made history by winning the city’s first gold of this year’s Games.
Besides her fencing career, Kong was also known for her academic achievements. She obtained a degree in international relations at Stanford University in the United States, before studying at Renmin University.
She is currently pursuing a Juris Doctor law degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Kong had previously shared that she wanted to study law at the university in Beijing to “learn more about China from the Chinese perspective”.
