A recent independent candidate for chief executive of Hong Kong will be coming to Eastern to speak on the crisis affecting Hong Kong currently from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday in the Charleston/Mattoon Room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Wing-yin Yu, a professor of science turned politician will be speaking about the occupation in the People’s Republic of China, where thousands of demonstrators, some students, are demanding more freedom and democracy. They are demanding to be given the right to elect a leader of their choosing for the chief executive in the 2017 election. Hong Kong police are using force to break up these political protests.

If these protests are successful, it will be the first time citizens would be directly voting for the chief executive, instead of a committee of 1,200 people.

Ping Chen, the public policy institute director, said these protest are getting heated, and has similar ties to the Tiananmen Square incident, where tanks were used to qualm protests.

Yu has received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Oregon.

In addition, Yu has also served as a science adviser to a number of world organizations, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It was in this capacity, that he was able to help shape some countries’ national policy on science.

His platform for his campaign during the Hong Kong governorship in 2012 was “how to develop Hong Kong through science.”

Chen said students, including the 20 Chinese international students, should be interested in the turmoil taking place in Hong Kong, because like Wall Street, Hong Kong plays an important role in the world economy.

Jarad Jarmon can be reached at 581-2812 or jsjarmon@eiu.edu.