Ex-lawmaker slams legislature’s silence on basketball coach’s alleged abuse of students

A former lawmaker has criticised Legislative Council members for not speaking up for students who were allegedly abused by a basketball coach. The coach was not prosecuted as a police investigation found “insufficient evidence” to press charges.

Lawmaker Doreen Kong at her Legislative Council office on November 17, 2025. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Doreen Kong, who served as a lawmaker for one term in the “patriots only” legislature before stepping down last December, made the remarks in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Yung Kam-wah, a prominent basketball coach, was arrested on suspicion of common assault in early June after an online video showed a coach forcing a student to slap himself several times in a school court.

“As for whether or not he should have been charged, I won’t comment at the moment. But regarding how society views the issue of the allegations against Yung Kam-wah, why won’t our representatives in the education and welfare sectors on the Legislative Council speak up in fairness to the students and athletes?” Kong asked.

The incident allegedly occurred at Hon Wah College, a secondary school in Siu Sai Wan. The school issued a statement on June 2, saying that the incident took place on the premises during the 2023-24 academic year, iCable reported.

The school added that it had contacted the student to provide support and had suspended Yung from coaching duties. The coach also serves on the Kennedy Town & Shek Tong Tsui Area Committee.

‘What kind of values are these?’

“Some lawmakers even said that there was no problem with beatings,” Kong said in her post, apparently referring to remarks made by lawmaker Junius Ho during a June LegCo debate reviewing child protection laws.

Basketball coach Yung Kam-wah Photo: Yung Kam Wah, via Facebook.

“I love my father for teaching me, and I love my mother even more for beating me,” Ho said, suggesting an exemption for physical punishment under Hong Kong law. “If they didn’t beat me growing up, how would I have become [House Committee] deputy chair?”

Kong also contrasted Yung’s case with that of Lee Cheuk-hing, a school principal who was told to resign after he berated security guards during a school trip in Singapore. “A principal has to resign because he cursed, while a teacher accused of beating students can keep teaching?”

“What kind of values are these? We talk about the well-being of young people, give cash handouts to convince them to have children, and spend over a year enacting laws requiring more than 20 professionals to report child abuse. But when we see someone suspected of hitting a student, we can downplay it. No wonder young people would rather raise cats and dogs!” Kong said.

Yung, who played on the Hong Kong men’s representative basketball team, currently serves as the vice-chairman of the Basketball Association of Hong Kong, China and works as a sports commentator.