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Hong Kong Protests: Police Rush Barricades at University Campus Hong Kong Violence Escalates as Police and Protesters Clash at University
(32 minutes later)
HONG KONG — The Hong Kong police early Monday morning tried to storm a university campus that antigovernment activists had occupied for days, a tense moment that could escalate the monthslong political crisis gripping the semiautonomous Chinese city. HONG KONG — Hundreds of Hong Kong activists armed with petrol bombs and bows-and-arrows battled riot police who have laid a days-long siege to a university, the most violent confrontation yet in a half-year of protests.
Student leaders said the police had carried out “a massive arrest of persons within the campus” and that there had been multiple injuries, with three people suffering injuries to their eyes and 40 suffering from hypothermia after being hit with water from police water cannons. Early Monday, the police tried storming the campus at the main entrance and made some arrests. But the occupiers fought back with dozens of petrol bombs and set barricades ablaze, forcing the police to retreat, at least temporarily.
At the outer edges of a barricade protecting the university, the police arrested a few protesters, but they fell back after other students set the barricade on fire and threw dozens of petrol bombs at the police. As day broke, the occupiers and the police were still locked in the standoff at Hong Kong Polytechnic University that began Saturday night, and smoke billowed from the grounds. Some protesters on Monday morning raced for the exits, only to be met with volleys of tear gas.
The standoff on Monday at Hong Kong Polytechnic University was the police’s most direct intervention onto one of the city’s university campuses, which until recently were safe spaces for young demonstrators. The police assault began at about 5:30 a.m. in Hong Kong. By 6:15 a.m., the fire at the barricade set ablaze by protesters was still big enough, and burning bright enough, to be visible at a distance. The police used tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons and armored vehicles to try breach the barricades all day on Sunday. But activists resisted into the night. One police officer was hit in the leg by an arrow, while student leaders said protesters suffered eye injuries and hypothermia after being struck by the water cannon.
The clashes were the culmination of the most disruptive week of the monthslong protests, a period that has focused a global spotlight on the growing desperation of the pro-democracy activists and aggressive efforts by the police to suppress them. It is a sign the conflict is turning more violent as the territory prepares to hold elections later this month.
The activists are struggling against the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing to preserve autonomy for Hong Kong, a political system guaranteed for 50 years by an agreement between Beijing and London. The British handed over the global financial hub in 1997.
The protests began 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. The rising tensions and a potential of greater control over Hong Kong’s political and legal systems by the Communist Party have raised questions over the long-term commercial viability of Hong Kong and the integrity of its fraying social fabric.
Here’s more on the latest developments in Hong Kong. In Washington, American officials said they were monitoring the clashes as well as reviewing a report by The New York Times on leaked internal Communist Party documents showing how party leaders, including President Xi Jinping, had set up internment camps to hold one million or more Muslims in another frontier area, Xinjiang.
PolyU’s president, Jin-Guang Teng, said in a prerecorded video released after the police tried to storm the campus that he had negotiated a temporary suspension of violence with the police. But he suggested that protesters occupying the campus would still have to turn themselves in to the police. Trump administration officials and Congress have been holding discussions on whether to impose separate sets of sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials for human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. But President Trump has held back for fear of upsetting trade talks.
“If the protesters do not initiate the use of force, the police will not initiate the use 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.” Hong Kong is scheduled to hold district council elections next Sunday. Some residents worry the government might postpone the vote, though Carrie Lam, the chief executive of the territory, has said the elections will be held on time.
The president’s statement came after a night of confrontation. A small number of supporters of Communist Party rule, as well as a Hu Xijin, the chief editor of Global Times, a state-run news organization in Beijing, had become so outraged by the Sunday clashes that they said the police should use live ammunition.
The protesters set fire to a flyover near the tunnel and a pedestrian bridge leading to the campus, forcing an armored police vehicle to retreat and setting another police vehicle on fire. Plumes of black smoke billowed across the campus. The occupation of the university has forced a weeklong shutdown of a tunnel leading to the business districts on Hong Kong Island from Kowloon, and activists said they planned more traffic blockades on Monday.
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 university president, Jin-Guang Teng, said Monday morning that he had negotiated a temporary truce with the police, but suggested occupiers still would have to turn themselves in to the police after leaving the campus.
The police later said in a statement that “rioters” had jeopardized public safety by hurling bricks and gasoline bombs, and that “such behaviors cannot be condoned.” The clashes of the past week began when protesters changed from a regular routine of weekend protests to disrupting traffic on workdays. The disruptions and attempts by the police to breach campuses — considered a last refuge by activists — quickly led to protesters occupying five universities, two of which sit astride key transportation routes.
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. The death of a student from a fall earlier this month and two dramatic violent acts also set the city on edge — a traffic policeman shot an unarmed protester, and activists set a man on fire after he confronted them.
“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. Protesters abandoned four of the universities over the weekend, but those at Polytechnic University held on. Hardcore activists converged there, while more moderate ones left on Sunday as the police surrounded the campus.
An American pastor and a half-dozen Hong Kong lawmakers said late on Sunday that they were calling on the city’s government to prevent any bloodshed. They said they had asked the United States Consulate to get the police to allow them inside the campus to ensure protesters’ safety. The police arrested dozens trying to flee, including first-aid volunteers. Mainstream supporters of the movement drove to the campus to try to get the police to back off. On Sunday night, the police threatened to use lethal force if the protesters did not leave.
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. “I know that there is a possibility that the police will fire live bullets on us tonight, but right now, we have no choice,” William Lau, 22, a protester on campus, said around midnight. He estimated there were about 500 activists on site.
Mr. 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. About 50 were arrested after trying to leave, he said, so others were wary of trying to exit.
“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.”
Mr. 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.
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.”“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.”
The Civil Human Rights Front, an umbrella group that organized large, peaceful marches in the early weeks of the six-month-old movement, urged the government and the police to de-escalate what it called “state violence.” Right outside the campus, pro-democracy lawmakers, a top Roman Catholic official, an American pastor and a student leader called on the Hong Kong government to intervene to prevent bloodshed.
“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.” “I want to seek help from the government to stop the police force from their operation and avoid tragedy,” said Owan Li, a student representative on the university council.
The tension started to build early on Sunday. The police fired gas and sprayed water cannons at young demonstrators who were continuing a multiday occupation of the campus. As police fired tear gas, Bishop Joseph Ha tried entering with the lawmakers and the American pastor, William Devlin of the Bronx, but were turned away by the police.
Ensconced above the Kowloon streets in fort-like enclosures, some of the protesters spent hours throwing gasoline bombs, some from improvised catapults. Others were armed with bows and arrows. The police said an officer had been hit in the calf with an arrow. “If the police are to launch a clearance, they should use as minimal force as possible because lives are precious,” Mr. Ha said.
Dozens of hard-line protesters also clashed with riot police in several working-class neighborhoods nearby, apparently in an attempt to divert the force’s energies away from the campus. Mr. Devlin said in a telephone interview that he had been on campus for about four hours as the clashes unfolded and had left, but was trying to re-enter. He estimated there were up to 1,000 activists still inside when he left.
The PolyU campus, which sits beside the harbor tunnel and a Chinese military barracks, is one of several that young protesters had occupied days earlier, turning them into quasi-militarized citadels. Most of the other sieges gradually tapered off. “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.’”
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. Mr. Devlin said he had been on the front line in the late afternoon when the police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against protesters.
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. He said he had seen protesters throw 10 to 20 petrol bombs to deter the police from advancing. At least two were armed with bows and arrows, he said.
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. Louis Lau, the police superintendent, said before midnight that an officer had fired a live round at a vehicle charging toward officers in an area near campus.
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. “Coldblooded rioters can only imitate terror acts,” he said.
Hong Kong’s mini-Constitution says that P.L.A. 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 on Saturday that the soldiers’ cleanup had been a self-initiated “community activity.” Protesters confronted police throughout the night in nearby neighborhoods to try to draw them away from the campus. The presidents of five universities released a statement calling for restraint by all sides and asking everyone on the campus to leave.
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 P.L.A. had ignored restrictions imposed on the troops by local laws. Denise Ho, a pro-democracy pop singer who has been banned on the mainland by Beijing, invoked the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre on Twitter and said, “World, please help Hong Kong and save our students!”
Ezra Cheung, Paul Mozur and Keith Bradsher contributed reporting. The police tried sending an armored vehicle across a bridge on the east side of campus. Protesters set the vehicle on fire with petrol bombs, forcing it to retreat.
Mr. Hu, the chief editor of Global Times, a nationalistic state-run newspaper in Beijing, posted a video of the vehicle aflame on Twitter and said, “Police should be permitted to fire live rounds in this case to counter rioters.”
On Friday, protesters at the university prepared for a long siege, as they poured gasoline into glass bottles to make hundreds or thousands of bombs and practiced throwing those into an empty swimming pool. They also did target practice with catapult-style slingshots and bows-and-arrows.
The police began advancing around 10 p.m. Saturday, and the clashes reached a high pitch on Sunday afternoon.
On Saturday, Chinese soldiers jogged out of their barracks near Hong Kong Baptist University and cleared bricks from streets that had been placed there by protesters to block traffic.
The soldiers wore T-shirts and basketball jerseys, and carried brooms. The Hong Kong garrison of the People’s Liberation Army is based in 19 sites once occupied by the British military. Even though Chinese troops have been stationed in Hong Kong since 1997, they almost never venture into the city.
The cleanup, which was lauded by Chinese state-run news organizations, prompted a torrent of criticism from local residents. Pro-democracy lawmakers issued a statement saying that the local government and the Chinese military had ignored restrictions imposed on the troops by local laws.
Edward Wong reported from Washington, and Mike Ives, Tiffany May and Katherine Li reported from Hong Kong. Paul Mozur and Ezra Cheung contributed reporting from Hong Kong.