14 Facts About Joseph Cheng

Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, JP is a Hong Kong political scientist and democracy activist.

Joseph Cheng was the secretary general of the Civic Party and convenor of pro-democratic groups including Power for Democracy and Alliance for True Democracy.

Joseph Cheng later obtained a doctoral degree from the Flinders University of South Australia in 1979.

Joseph Cheng taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong from 1977 to 1989 and the Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong from 1989 to 1991.

Joseph Cheng joined the City University of Hong Kong as a chair professor of the Political Science and Coordinator of the Contemporary China Research Project in July 1992.

Joseph Cheng specialised in Chinese foreign policy, Hong Kong politics and International politics.

Joseph Cheng is the founding editor of the Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences and The Journal of Comparative Asian Development and served as the founding president of the Asian Studies Association of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2007.

Shortly before his retirement, Joseph Cheng was demoted by the City University of Hong Kong from the chair professor to a regular professor after an investigation into allegations that he took credit for a research assistant's work in articles published in academic journals more than a decade earlier.

Joseph Cheng was a commentator on political affairs and in the early 1980s witnessed the Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong's sovereignty.

Joseph Cheng was the convenor of the Power for Democracy, a pro-democratic organisation set up in 2002 to co-ordinate the pan-democracy camp in the elections to avoid candidacy clashes.

Joseph Cheng was the founding secretary general of the Civic Party, in March 2003.

Joseph Cheng ran for the chairmanship of the Civic Party in 2011, but was narrowly beaten by Kenneth Chan Ka-lok, who was backed by most of the party veterans, after a heated campaign that saw some complaining about the fairness of the contest.

Joseph Cheng was director of the New School for Democracy, founded in 2011, and was a member of the Election Committee, a 1,200-member electoral college responsible for electing the Chief Executive, representing Higher Education Subsector.

Joseph Cheng currently lives in Canberra, Australia, where he is a citizen.