By Jerome A. Cohen
The appointment of Fu Hualing as Dean of the Faculty of Law of Hong Kong University is gratifying not only because of widespreadas acting dean respect and friendship for Dean Fu but also because of its possible positive significance for Hong Kong's continuing struggle. The dean of HKU's impressive law school has long been in a position to have an important public impact. This imposes a responsibility that Hualing is admirably equipped to fulfill, especially after two years as acting dean that have been a "trial" in more ways than one.
On the same day as the above announcement, two scholars from mainland China were appointed as vice-presidents of HKU. It is ironic that the news of these two university-level appointments, both scholars formerly associated with the University of California at Berkeley, came out just as we learned of Dean Fu’s appointment. Interestingly, all three people involved are “mainlanders” well-known outside of the mainland.
HK has long drawn upon former Berkeley scholars for educational leadership. In the early ‘60s it invited the distinguished economist Professor Li Choh-ming, then chairman of Berkeley’s Center for Chinese Studies, to be the first head of the then new Chinese University of Hong Kong. (He would be deeply saddened to see the damage recently inflicted on the beautiful campus he fostered.)
I do not know the two new HKU vice-presidents, but I do know Law Dean Fu Hualing and echo the many voices that welcome his appointment as the best possible choice for an important institution. For two years, Professor Fu has been ably serving as acting dean as HKU floundered in its deliberations over the deanship.
How he will choose to exercise his new authority and prestige in the current HK crisis will be very much worth watching. He is well aware, of course, that one of his many distinguished predecessors in the post, another leading expert on justice and human rights in China, Professor Johannes Chan, was later denied a more senior university-wide position and then couldn’t even obtain a visa to enter Macao!
So often, wonderful scholars are selected to be law school deans in difficult circumstances that significantly diminish their possibilities for further scholarly attainment. Let's hope that Hualing can continue to follow Chairman Mao's admonition to "walk on two legs". Good luck, Hualing!!