Benny Tai

Benny Tai Yiu-ting (Chinese: 戴耀廷; born 12 July 1964) is a Hong Kong legal scholar, political figure, and democracy activist. He was an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong.

From 2013, Tai launched and is known for his initiation of the Occupy Central with Love and Peace, as he considered Hong Kong to lack "true universal suffrage" and should participate in an Occupy movement to win universal suffrage in the 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election. His suggestion ultimately resulted in the eruption of the Umbrella Movement the following year, as a result of which he was found guilty of "conspiracy to commit public nuisance" and "inciting others to commit public nuisance" and sentenced to six months in prison.[1][2] Citing this conviction, in July 2020, the University of Hong Kong's governing council controversially fired Tai.[3]

After the protests, Tai repeatedly campaigned to pressure for greater electoral reforms in Hong Kong, launching "Operation ThunderGo" in the 2016 Legislative Council election, a "smart voter" mechanism aiming at getting the most pro-democracy candidates elected to the Legislative Council. He also initiated "Project Storm" for the pro-democrats to win the majority in the 2019 District Council elections.

On 6 January 2021, Tai was arrested along with 54 other pro-democracy campaigners, activists, social workers, and former legislators on suspicion of "subversion of state power" under the national security law for organising the 2020 pro-democracy primaries. In a national security trial in 2024, a Hong Kong court sentenced Tai to 10 years in jail for "subversion".[4]

Academic background

Tai was educated at the Diocesan Boys' School and then graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a law degree and a Postgraduate Certificate in Laws, followed by a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics.[5] His classmates included Rimsky Yuen and Keith Yeung.[6]

He joined the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong in 1990, became an assistant professor in 1991 and an associate professor in 2001. He was also the Associate Dean of the law faculty from 2000 to 2008.[5] He specialised in constitutional law, administrative law, law and governance, law and politics and law and religion.[7]

Tai has been active in promoting civic education in the community, having served on the Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee as a student representative from 1988 to 1990 and a member of the Committee on the Promotion of Civil Education and the Bilingual Laws Advisory Committee from 1995 to 2003. He was also a part-time member of the Hong Kong government's Central Policy Unit in 2007.[7]

In July 2020, Tai was fired by the University of Hong Kong, his long-time employer, citing the criminal conviction he incurred for his role in the 2014 pro-democracy protests, known as Occupy Central.[3] The university's governing council controversially overturned (by 18 votes to 2) a previous ruling by its senate, which recommended against dismissal. His salary and benefits were immediately suspended.[3] Tai claimed that the decision to fire him was "made not by the University of Hong Kong but by an authority beyond the University through its agents."[3]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Tai