Hong Kong campus protest showdowns loom but tension eases

[November 15, 2019]  By Felix Tam and Jessie Pang

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The president of Hong Kong's Chinese University, which anti-government protesters have turned into a fortress stockpiled with petrol bombs and bows and arrows, threatened on Friday to call in "assistance" unless all non-students leave.

But many had already left after some of them allowed the partial reopening of a key highway next to the campus, blocked by protest debris, suggesting differences of opinion in a movement which has been largely leaderless in more than five months of sometimes violent unrest.

That decision was debated by students later in the day and they started blocking the road again, leading to further chaos during the Friday night rush-hour.

The hilly campus was the scene of clashes this week, with pro-democracy protesters hurling petrol bombs at police and on to the Tolo highway linking the largely rural New Territories with the Kowloon peninsula to the south and Hong Kong island beyond.

The highway partially reopened on Friday, but the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, outside the barricaded Polytechnic University where protesters have practised firing bows and arrows and throwing petrol bombs in a half-empty swimming pool, remained closed.
 

"I am disappointed about the decision to reopen the Tolo highway and it’s not our consensus," one student who gave his name as Cheung, 18, told Reuters.

"I was asleep when they had closed-door meetings. I was worried and scared after I realized what had happened and most protesters had left. I was worried the police might storm in again because so few people are left. Some protesters from the outside have gone too far.”

Students and protesters have barricaded at least five campuses after four days of some of the worst violence in the former British colony for decades.

Remaining students hunkered down on the bridge over the Tolo highway, black pirate-style freedom flags flying from lookout posts. A few on ladders with binoculars kept watch over the road.

Chinese University president Rocky Tuan said in an open letter that all outsiders must leave.

"Universities are places to study, not to resolve political disputes, or even a battlefield to create weapons and use force," he said.

"If the university cannot continue to fulfill its basic mission and tasks, we must seek the assistance of relevant government departments to lift the current crisis."

There were only about 200 protesters there on Friday compared to at least 1,000 two days ago.

One non-student protester, Fung, also 18, said he was also shocked at the decision to allow the highway to reopen.

"We couldn’t stop it. I agree there’s a need for better communication and coordination between CUHK protesters and non-CUHK protesters.”

Demonstrators paralyzed parts of Hong Kong for a fifth day on Friday, forcing schools to close and disrupting transport.

The week has also seen a marked intensification of the violence.

A 70-year-old street cleaner, who had been hit in the head by one of several bricks police said had been thrown by "masked rioters", died on Thursday. On Monday, police blamed a "rioter" for dousing a man in petrol and setting him on fire. The victim is in critical condition.

On the same day, police shot a protester in the abdomen. He is in stable condition.

"We can no longer can say Hong Kong is a safe city," Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung told a briefing.

Police said the Chinese University had been "taken hostage".

Protesters transport bricks on a cart at the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, China, November 15, 2019. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

"Rioters’ violence has infiltrated into almost every corner of society and now turned the Chinese University of Hong Kong into a powder keg," police spokesman Chief Superintendent Tse Chun-chung told a briefing.

Protesters are angry at perceived Chinese meddling in the city since it returned to Beijing rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula guaranteeing its colonial-era freedoms.

China denies interfering and has blamed Western countries for stirring up trouble.

Police have kept their distance from the campuses for more than two days, saying both sides should cool off, but many observers are afraid of what will happen if and when they move in.

LONDON ALTERCATION

China and Hong Kong both condemned an attack in London on Thursday by a "violent mob" on Hong Kong's justice secretary, the first direct altercation between demonstrators and a government minister.

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng, who was in London to promote Hong Kong as a "dispute resolution and deal-making hub", was targeted by a group of protesters who shouted "murderer" and "shameful".

The Hong Kong government said Cheng suffered "serious bodily harm" but gave no details. The Chinese Embassy in Britain said Cheng was "besieged and attacked by dozens of anti-China and pro-independence activists".

The British police said a woman had been taken to hospital with an injury to her arm and that they were investigating but no arrests had been made.

The protests escalated in June over a now-scrapped extradition bill that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial.

They have since evolved into anti-China calls for greater democracy, among other demands. A few want independence.

The unrest has plunged Hong Kong into its biggest political crisis in decades and pose the gravest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. Xi said in Brazil on Thursday stopping violence was the most urgent task for Hong Kong.

The demonstrations have battered the retail and tourism sectors, with widespread disruptions across the financial center and no end in sight to the violence and vandalism.

Hong Kong sank into recession for the first time in a decade in the third quarter, government data confirmed on Friday, with its economy shrinking by 3.2% from the previous quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Video footage obtained by Reuters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army garrison headquarters near Hong Kong's Central business district showed more than a dozen troops conducting what appeared to be anti-riot drills against people pretending to be protesters carrying black umbrellas.

The PLA has stayed in the barracks since 1997 but China has warned that any attempt at independence will be crushed.

(Reporting by Donny Kwok, Felix Tam, Twinnie Siu, Jessie Pang, Anne Marie Roantree and Marius Zaharia; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree and Nick Macfie; Editing by Robert Birsel and Philippa Fletcher)

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