Hong Kong police rush barricades at university

campus, but retreat in face of fire

MIKE IVES, TIFFANY MAY, EDWARD WONG AND KATHERINE LI
HONG KONG, CHINA
THE NEW YORK TIMES
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 17, 2019UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
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Protesters make fire bombs at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Nov. 18, 2019 in Hong Kong,
China.

ANTHONY KWAN/GETTY IMAGES

The Hong Kong police early Monday morning tried to enter in force a university campus that anti-
government activists had occupied for days, a tense moment that could significantly escalate the
months-long political crisis gripping the semiautonomous Chinese city.

But while police were able to arrest a few protesters at the outer edges of barricades protecting the
university, they soon retreated after other students set the barricades on fire and threw dozens of petrol
bombs at the police.

Police have been surrounding Hong Kong Polytechnic University and have threatened to use “lethal
force” to arrest those who did not surrender. The attempted raid was the police force’s most direct
intervention yet onto one of the city’s university campuses, which until recently were safe spaces for
young demonstrators.

The police assault began about 5:30 a.m. in Hong Kong, and at 6:15 a.m., the fire at the barricade was
still big enough, and burning bright enough, to be visible at a distance.

It was unclear if the riot police were planning to regroup to make another attempt to clear protesters
from the campus.

The standoff at the PolyU campus, in which a police officer was hit in his leg with an arrow, shattered a
fragile calm that had returned to Hong Kong after a workweek marred by severe transit disruptions and
street violence. Protesters on the fringes of the campus continued their multiday blockage of a nearby
and vital cross-harbor tunnel and stepped up their tactics by setting fire to two nearby bridges and an
armoured police vehicle.

Schools across Hong Kong were cancelled for Monday, and the political crisis gripping the city since
June showed no signs of abating.

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The protests began in June over legislation, since scrapped, that would have allowed extraditions to
mainland China and have expanded to include a broad range of demands for police accountability and
greater democracy.

Here’s more on the latest developments in Hong Kong:

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Protesters run outside of Hong Kong Polytechnic University as police storm the campus in Hong Kong,
early Monday, Nov. 18, 2019.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT TRIES TO NEGOTIATE A SOLUTION

PolyU’s president, Jin-Guang Teng, said in a pre-recorded video released after the police tried to storm
the campus that he had negotiated a temporary suspension of violence with the police, but suggested
that protesters occupying the campus would still have to turn themselves in to the police.

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“If the protesters do not initiate the use of force, the police will not initiate the use of force,” he said in
the video statement. “In addition, we have also received permission from the police for you to leave the
campus peacefully, and I will personally accompany you to the police station to ensure that your case
will be fairly processed.”

The president’s statement came after a night of confrontation.

After nightfall, the protesters set fire to a flyover near the tunnel and a pedestrian bridge leading to the
campus, forcing an armoured police vehicle to retreat and setting another police vehicle on fire. Plumes
of black smoke billowed across the campus.

Superintendent Louis Lau of the Hong Kong police said in a video statement that an officer had fired a
live round at a vehicle that charged toward officers Sunday night. “Coldblooded rioters can only imitate
terror acts,” he said, warning that live rounds could be used as a “necessary minimum force.”

The police later said in a statement that “rioters” had jeopardized public safety by hurling bricks and
gasoline bombs, and that “such behaviours cannot be condoned.”

Before the attempt to storm the campus, a riot police officer on the site warned that protesters were
surrounded and that the force would use lethal force against them if they did not surrender.

“Time is running out,” the officer said through a loudspeaker. The police also warned anyone inside the
campus to leave immediately through a designated exit, which was later set on fire.

After many protesters and journalists left the campus ahead of a 10 p.m. deadline the police had set,
several protesters returned to an entrance, chanting “Hong Kongers, take revenge.” The police fired

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volleys of tear gas and streams of a stinging blue dye at the protesters, who shielded themselves with
umbrellas and threw petrol bombs.

In a statement issued just before midnight, Civil Human Rights Front, an umbrella group that organized
large, peaceful marches in the early weeks of the protest movement, urged the government and police to
de-escalate what it called “state violence.”

“With the tense atmosphere and escalation of the use of force by police, we worry that the protesters,
most of whom are our young and future generation, will face arrest with bloodshed,” the statement said.

Dozens of civilians and volunteer drivers have poured into nearby neighbourhoods, trying to help
protesters trapped inside the campus escape arrest or injury.

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Smoke billows from a fire next to Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the road leading to the Cross
Harbour Tunnel in Hung Hom district of Hong Kong on Nov. 18, 2019.

DALE DE LA REY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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A makeshift barricade of chairs and other debris is seen on a stairway at the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University (PolyU) in Hong Kong, China Nov. 18, 2019.

ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS

HONG KONG LAWMAKERS AND A U.S. PASTOR CALL FOR AN INTERVENTION

A U.S. pastor and a half-dozen Hong Kong lawmakers said late on Sunday that they were calling on the
Hong Kong government to prevent any bloodshed. They said they had asked the U.S. Consulate to get
the police to allow them inside the campus to ensure protesters’ safety.

The pastor, William Devlin, said in a telephone interview that he had been on campus for at least four
hours as the clashes unfolded, and had left at 8 p.m. But he was trying to re-enter with the lawmakers at
a northwest entrance.

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Devlin estimated there were many hundreds of determined activists still inside when he left, perhaps up
to 1,000. He said they were spread out across all parts of the campus, with at least 200 in the cafeteria.

“They were all in good spirits,” he said. “They were not being deterred. They were ready to be arrested.
They said, ‘We stand for freedom, dignity, democracy, human rights.’ They said they were staying.”

Devlin said he had been on the front line with the activists in the late afternoon when the police used
tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against protesters. Much of that took place outside a main
southwest entrance to the university that is a 15-minute walk from the bustling commercial strip of
Nathan Road.

He said he had seen protesters throw 10 to 20 petrol bombs to deter the police from advancing. Officers
deployed at least one water cannon truck and two armoured vehicles. At least two protesters were armed
with bows and arrows, he said.

Devlin said he would call a U.S. diplomat before midnight to ask for help getting the police to grant him
permission to re-enter the campus with six Hong Kong legislators. They want to “make sure the students
are being treated fairly,” he said.

William Lau, 22, a protester on campus, said around midnight that about 500 activists were still on
campus. “I know that there is a possibility that the police will fire live bullets on us tonight, but right
now we have no choice,” he said.

About 50 activists were arrested after trying to leave via a northwest entrance, he said, so others were
wary of trying to exit.

“The police would never just let us walk out like that,” he said. “I know that some want to leave now but
don’t know how, while a fair number wants to stay and fight.”

Canadian universities urge exchange students in Hong Kong to return home as protests escalate on
campuses

Scores of protesters in nearby areas of Mong Kok confronted the police in an attempt to draw forces
away from the campus. On Hong Kong Island, protesters with the same aim put up barricades in
Central, the main business and luxury shopping district.

Louis Lau, the police superintendent, said before midnight that an officer had fired a live round at a
vehicle that charged toward officers.

“Coldblooded rioters can only imitate terror acts,” he said, warning that live rounds could be used as a
“necessary minimum force.” The police also said they might use lethal force if the protesters do not leave
the campus.

Civil Human Rights Front, an umbrella group that organized large, peaceful marches in the early weeks
of the 6-month-old movement, urged the government and the police to de-escalate what it called “state
violence.”

“With the tense atmosphere and escalation of the use of force by police,” the group said in a statement,
“we worry that the protesters, most of whom are our young and future generation, will face arrest with
bloodshed.”

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Open this photo in gallery
A protester attempts to extinguish a fire at the entrance of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on
Nov. 18, 2019 in Hong Kong,

ANTHONY KWAN/GETTY IMAGES

A FIERY CAMPUS STANDOFF

For hours on Sunday, the police fired gas and sprayed water cannons at young demonstrators who were
continuing a multiday occupation of the campus and blockading an adjacent tunnel that connects Hong
Kong Island with the Kowloon Peninsula.

Ensconced above the Kowloon streets in fortlike enclosures, some of the protesters spent hours
throwing gasoline bombs, some from improvised catapults. Others were armed with bows and arrows,
and the police said an officer had been hit in the calf with an arrow.

Dozens of hard-line protesters also clashed with riot police in several working-class neighbourhoods
nearby, apparently in an attempt to divert the force’s energies away from the campus.

The PolyU campus, which sits beside the harbour tunnel and a Chinese military barracks, is one of
several that young protesters had occupied days earlier, turning them into quasimilitarized citadels.
Most of the other sieges gradually tapered off.

The Sunday clash came on the heels of a particularly intense week of transit delays, street scuffles and
flash-mob-style demonstrations across the city. The unrest was prompted in part by the police shooting
of a young demonstrator at point-blank range. He survived.

PLAY VIDEO0:59
A police vehicle in Hong Kong burst into flames after being hit by a Molotov cocktail on Sunday (Nov.
17).REUTERS

A RARE APPEARANCE BY CHINESE SOLDIERS

On Saturday, Chinese soldiers jogged out of their barracks near Hong Kong Baptist University and
cleared bricks from streets that had been swarmed days earlier by young demonstrators.

The soldiers wore T-shirts and basketball jerseys, rather than military uniforms, and carried brooms
instead of weapons. Their appearance threatened to inflame tensions in the semiautonomous Chinese
territory, where many are deeply sensitive about what they see as Beijing’s growing influence over their
lives.

The Hong Kong garrison of the People’s Liberation Army is based in 19 sites once occupied by the
British military before the former colony returned to Chinese control in 1997. But even though Chinese
troops have been stationed in Hong Kong for years, it is highly unusual for them to venture into the city.
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Hong Kong’s mini-Constitution says that PLA forces “shall not interfere” in local affairs and that the
local government may ask for the army’s assistance for disaster relief and maintaining public order. The
Hong Kong government said in a statement Saturday that the soldiers’ cleanup had been a self-initiated
“community activity.”

The cleanup, which was lauded in China’s state-run news media, prompted a torrent of criticism from
local residents. On Saturday, 24 lawmakers from Hong Kong’s pro-democracy legislative minority
issued a joint statement saying that the local government and the PLA had ignored restrictions imposed
on the troops by local laws.

Open this photo in gallery

Protesters watch as a fire burns at the main entrance of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Nov.
18, 2019 in Hong Kong, China.

ANTHONY KWAN/GETTY IMAGES

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