University heads criticise government over campus battles

As universities in Hong Kong become violent battlegrounds, with fiery clashes between students and police lasting sometimes for days at besieged university campuses, university heads have said the Hong Kong government cannot expect universities to tackle deep-rooted problems that did not originate on university campuses.

Protests, now in their sixth month, started as peaceful demonstrations against a bill to extradite criminals to China, then widened to general anti-government and anti-China protests and have turned increasingly violent.

Two universities – the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University – came under violent siege this month, with dozens of students injured in clashes with police. Two other universities were barricaded by students earlier this month

University heads are under pressure from the government to restore peace to their campuses and also to punish students who have engaged in violence, but they are finding they are powerless to intervene between parties in the conflict, and say action needs to be taken at a broader government level.

“Any demand that universities can simply fix the problem is disconnected from reality: these complicated and challenging situations neither originate from the universities, nor can they be resolved through university disciplinary processes,” said a statement from nine presidents and vice-chancellors of Hong Kong’s universities.

“They are reflections of Hong Kong-wide disagreement, and the government must take the lead with swift and concrete action to resolve this political deadlock and to restore safety and public order now,” said the statement on 15 November from the heads of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Education University of Hong Kong, Lingnan University, Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, City University of Hong Kong (CityU), Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

The last four institutions have seen major attacks on their campuses.

The statement came after the siege at CUHK had come to an end, but before the siege at PolyU this week.

“Hong Kong society is currently fractured, with deep divisions across social groups, political parties, and even among family and friends. The past week has seen a rapid escalation of violence and confrontation throughout Hong Kong: several universities are now under protesters’ control, on-campus hazardous materials have been taken, staff and students have left campus out of fear for their personal safety. These events are challenging our universities in the most fundamental way.

“No political viewpoint gives a licence to damage property, employ physical threats, or use violence against individuals. It is regrettable that societal disagreement has led to university campuses becoming major political battlefields, and that the government response has so far not been effective,” university leaders said.

Academics say the statement is a significant departure from the government line, with rare joint criticism of government ineffectiveness that has brought universities into the frontline.

Limitations faced by university leaders

The limitations faced by Hong Kong’s university leaders in trying to defuse campus tensions have been very evident in recent weeks, particularly their attempts to mediate between students and police.

Beginning on 12 November, CUHK protesters barricaded themselves on campus and kept police at bay on the periphery. But with university representatives trying but failing to de-escalate the confrontation, police stormed onto the campus on 14 November. Battles raged through the night as students fought to keep hold of the campus.

Police officers fired thousands of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at students and protesters defending a bridge overlooking a major highway which was also the main way onto campus.

After barricading themselves on campus for more than four days, protesters dispersed voluntarily, most of them leaving by Friday 15 November. They left behind debris, damage and thousands of petrol bombs. Some of them headed for PolyU – scenes of even more violent standoffs this week.

The head of CUHK, Rocky Tuan, and PolyU head Teng Jin-guang both found during the sieges on their respective campuses how hard it was to negotiate a de-escalation and safe passage out of besieged campuses for students.

CUHK’s Tuan came under tear gas attack even as he approached police to negotiate with them. But they eventually struck a deal, which both sides promptly reneged on. Tuan was reduced to condemning violence and calling on students not to use the university, a place for knowledge and learning, as a battleground.

“More should have been done to de-escalate before the police got on campus,” said one CUHK academic who spoke on condition of anonymity. “A truce cannot be negotiated in the heat of battle when both sides are entrenched,” he said, referring to students and police.

Lokman Tsui, assistant professor at CUHK’s school of journalism, said in a series of tweets this week: “It is heartbreaking to me to see students play ‘catch and throw’ and you realise they are practising to throw molotovs [petrol bombs]. It is heartbreaking to me, because if we, the supposed adults in the room, had done a better job in protecting the university and Hong Kong, they wouldn’t have to do this.

“I agree with the uni president that CUHK should be a place of learning, of education, of knowledge, but let’s also not forget that these things mean nothing without freedom,” Tsui wrote.

PolyU negotiations were also difficult

PolyU had been barricaded for several days. But the battle of PolyU, which began in earnest on 16 November, was particularly fierce with constant tear gas volleys countered with petrol bombs, slings, arrows and other makeshift weapons.

The PolyU campus is located across from Hung Hom station, Kowloon – a vital transit point including for trains to mainland China, with all services disrupted by the siege. A People’s Liberation Army barracks is also close by.

Student representatives and the chairman of the PolyU student union, Derek Liu, said from the campus during the height of the clashes that students had begged the university administration in phone calls to “save the campus and the students”.

“The school, seemed to really, really want to help, but were helpless and did not know how to begin to help. Their response was only ‘we are working on it’,” the students said. “They were powerless.”

On 18 November, at the height of the battle for PolyU, the university’s governing council chairman, Lam Tai-fai, attempted to cross police lines to speak to the commander outside the campus, but was shouted at and a bright torch was shone on him by riot police, according to witnesses. Chairman Lam told the media he was unable to enter the campus despite trying multiple police checkpoints and he described the situation as “frustrating”.

“The police have adopted a very hard-line approach and it is impossible for us to go in and achieve anything,” Rodney Chu, another member PolyU’s governing council, told the South China Morning Post newspaper. “The school only managed to arrange Red Cross officers to provide assistance on campus this afternoon [18 November] after spending tremendous effort. It is tough.”

Later the same day, going through different channels, Chairman Lam and PolyU’s President Teng said they had negotiated a deal to allow some protesters to leave the campus. But the deal collapsed when police tear gassed protesters as they emerged, forcing them to rush back into the campus.

We “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”, Teng said in a video message.

“I hope that you will accept the proposed temporary suspension of force, and leave the campus in a peaceful manner,” Teng had said.

Acting president of the PolyU student union, Ken Woo, said in a radio interview that the university president’s response to the stand-off had come “way too late”, saying Teng should have intervened much earlier to protect the university and its people.

The negotiated deal was ineffective because police were intent on arresting everyone who came out, including first aid workers. At the time Woo said more than 500 protesters remained, including many injured and some suffering from hypothermia from a police water cannon, but many of them decided to stay put, saying there was no reason for them to leave if they were going to be arrested by police anyway.

On Monday 18 November police said more than 400 people had been arrested at PolyU since 10pm Sunday – by far the largest number of protesters arrested within a 24-hour period. The overall arrest total since June is at least 4,893.

Others come to help

Chung Kim-wah, assistant professor at PolyU’s department of applied social sciences, went to PolyU on Sunday 17 November. “I’m trying to do something to ease the tension and trying to do something for the welfare and benefit of my students,” he said, with as many as 20 students from his department on campus. “They are only there to help sort materials for the front-line protesters,” he added.

He later told BBC news: “I told the police that if they permit me, I can go inside to help some of my students … to pacify them.” But he said the police confronted him aggressively. “They tried to scare me away, threatening that they might possibly arrest me and would not even promise to transmit my request to their commander.

“At this moment quite a lot of people are becoming more and more angry against the government, against the police,” Chung said, adding that, even if the government chose to do something to end the confrontation, the situation cannot be easily rectified in one or two days.

Other mediation attempts were made by professors, including from some of the other universities, and legislators. The heads of PolyU, Baptist University, CityU, HKUST and HKU issued a joint statement urging all parties around PolyU to exercise restraint.

Jasper Tsang, a former Legislative Council speaker, and Eric Cheung, a legal scholar from HKU, and around 20 school principals were finally able to negotiate with the police to enter the campus to persuade those inside to leave and to bring out 100 secondary school pupils from 40 schools trapped inside the campus.

It wasn’t until Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that she had laid out two principles with police for handling the PolyU stand-off – they were to try resolving the incident peacefully, and treat injured or under-aged protesters in a humanitarian manner – that the injured and dozens of teenage high-school students were able to leave.

Many others tried to escape through sewers and by rappelling down from a bridge to the campus, to evade certain arrest.

“For all the well-meaning and repeated efforts of our teachers, it was only when Carrie Lam finally spoke that people were able to leave,” said one PolyU student who managed to escape arrest. “But we have no protection. I am certain police will come and get anyone who is a registered student at PolyU.”

Caught between police and students

University leaders have had to tread a fine line, and are often seen by students as not being supportive enough in condemning police brutality. But academics say university leaders are also under pressure from police to “restore social stability” and not just on their campuses. The police “want us to influence how students behave when they are not on campus. It is wholly unrealistic,” the CUHK academic said.

Social stability “is a much wider problem, with political roots and even if we could help here, on the CUHK campus, to convince students to be reasonable, not to use violence, problems will simply break out elsewhere. It is everywhere. On other campuses, out on the streets, everywhere,” he said.

But he acknowledged that work to diffuse tensions should have started earlier.

Some academics have been working hard on this. Matthew Evans, science dean at HKU, said: “Most of my fellow deans have been out among students and working with them and the police to prevent clashes. They have been amazing.”

Speaking to many HKU students, he observed: “The vast majority have been sensible, articulate and willing to listen and compromise. This includes those in black [the uniform of protesters] and those who are not.

“But the moderates cannot control the radicals. Unfortunately, there are some who just want to escalate [the conflict] and do not care what happens to themselves, other students and staff or the university.”

In the case of HKU, Evans said the police “have listened to us and we have done what the students say they want; we have maintained separation between the police and the campus.”

“Hong Kong really needs to find a way out of this situation. A way forward is needed that allows the underlying anxieties of the young to be met, and that recognises the constraints that being part of China produces. I hope that it can be found,” Evans added on twitter.