The City University of Hong Kong (CityU) Chinese Debating Team was crowned champion in the 10th Basic Law Multi-Dimensional Inter-University Debate Competition held on 9 August. In addition, three team members collected the Best Debater Awards.

With its incisive point-making, critical thinking and sophisticated debating skills, the CityU Chinese Debating Team’s victory demonstrated CityU’s success in developing students’ independent and critical mindset.

The team comprised captain Karen Cheng Yu-kiu, a year 2 student from the Department of Marketing; first speaker Carey Tse Yuen-ting, year 1 student from the Department of Public and Social Administration; second speaker Ryan Chan Wai-kiu, graduate from the same department; captain (conclusion) Johnathan Chui King-wah, year 1 student from the Department of Information Systems. They pitted their wits against Hong Kong Baptist University in the final after progressing through heats and a semi-final. Ryan Chan also collected the award for Best Debater in the final.

CityU stood for the negative side of the statement, “Universal suffrage can reconcile executive authorities and legislature”. Team members received the trophy from Mr Gilbert Mo Sik-keung, Deputy Law Draftsman (Bilingual Drafting & Administration) of the Department of Justice, HKSAR.

Johnathan, who was also the Chairman of the CityU Chinese Debating Team in 2007-08, said the championship title was won through hard work. “The topic this time was quite complicated so we spent a lot of time gaining an understanding of the relationship between the executive authorities, legislature, structure and the related concepts in order to present in a simple way to the judges and audience within just three to four minutes,” said Johnathan. He added that he learnt a lot during the process of preparation and participation and thanked coaches
Mr Jason Leung Hin-hang, Mr Kenny Cheng Kin-yat and Mr Yeung Tung-sing for their guidance and instruction. Johnathan won a Best Debater award in a heat.

Karen Cheng, who also collected the Best Debater in the semi-final, concluded that to know your competitor well was the key to victory. “The team from Hong Kong Baptist University always performs well and is renowned for its sophisticated debating skills and innovative ideas, therefore we tried to think and analyse the topic from different angles, in order to break our competitor’s points accumulation,” said Karen.

Kenny Cheng, one of the debate team coaches and also an ex-team member, was consoled by CityU’s victory. He praised the whole-heartedness and vigour of the champion team.

It was the tenth year of The Basic Law Multi-Dimensional Inter-University Debate Competition, organised by the Joint Committee for the Promotion of the Basic Law of Hong Kong and co-organised by Wofoo Social Enterprises. The competition targets students from Hong Kong tertiary education institutions and aims to provide opportunities to acquire a better understanding of the Basic Law. Nine teams from tertiary education institutions and three open teams formed by different tertiary education institutions joined the competition this year.