Joseph Cheng facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Joseph Cheng
鄭宇碩
Election Committee Higher Education Subsector
In office 2006–2016
Personal details
Born	1949 (age 75–76)
Citizenship	Australian
Political party	Civic Party
Other political affiliations	Pan-democratic camp Power for Democracy Alliance for True Democracy
Education	La Salle College University of Hong Kong< Victoria University of Wellington Flinders University
Occupation	Professor
Known for	Universal suffrage activism

Joseph Cheng Yu-shek is a well-known political scientist and activist from Hong Kong. He was born in 1949. He is known for working to bring more democracy to Hong Kong. He also served as a Justice of Peace (JP), which is an important role in the community.

Joseph Cheng was a leader in several groups that supported democracy. These included the Civic Party, Power for Democracy, and the Alliance for True Democracy.

Learning and Teaching Career

Joseph Cheng went to school at La Salle College. He earned his first university degrees from the University of Hong Kong in 1972 and the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand in 1973. He later completed his doctoral degree at Flinders University of South Australia in 1979.

Teaching at Universities

He started his teaching career at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1977. He taught there until 1989. After that, he taught at the Open University of Hong Kong for two years.

From 1991 to 1992, he worked for the Hong Kong government. He was part of the Central Policy Unit, which was a group that helped the government think about important issues.

In 1992, he joined the City University of Hong Kong. He became a professor of Political Science. He also helped lead a project that studied modern China.

Areas of Study

Professor Cheng was an expert in several areas. He studied how China deals with other countries. He also focused on the politics of Hong Kong and international politics.

He helped start two important academic magazines: the Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences and The Journal of Comparative Asian Development. He was also the first president of the Asian Studies Association of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2007. He retired from teaching in 2015.

Working for Democracy

Joseph Cheng has always been interested in political events. In the early 1980s, he watched the important talks between China and Britain. These talks decided the future of Hong Kong.

Leading Pro-Democracy Groups

In 2002, he became the leader of Power for Democracy. This group helped different pro-democracy parties work together during elections. This made sure they didn't compete against each other too much.

He also helped start the Civic Party in March 2003. He was the first secretary general of this party. In 2011, he ran to become the chairman of the Civic Party. He was very close to winning, but Kenneth Chan Ka-lok won the election.

Professor Cheng was also a director of the New School for Democracy, which started in 2011. He was a member of the Election Committee. This committee has 1,200 members and helps choose the leader of Hong Kong, called the Chief Executive. Joseph Cheng represented the Higher Education Subsector on this committee.

Push for True Democracy

In 2013, he became the leader of the Alliance for True Democracy. This group wanted real democracy for Hong Kong. They proposed ways for the public, political parties, and a special committee to choose candidates for the 2017 Chief Executive election.

However, the proposal was not accepted. The National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) made a decision on August 31, 2014, that limited how the election could work.

Personal Life

Joseph Cheng is married and has a son and a daughter. He lives in Canberra, Australia, and is an Australian citizen.