Last year's centennial celebrations at the University of Hong Kong were not held in honour of a visiting mainland official, its vice chancellor insists.
The August 18 event was arranged to coincide with Vice-Premier Li Keqiang's visit, but it wasn't held solely because he was in town, vice chancellor Tsui Lap-chee said.
The vice-premier was in Hong Kong not just for the HKU anniversary, so the university had to fit in with his schedule and the ceremony he attended was one of many celebrations held, Tsui and HKU council chairman Leong Che-hung said.
Controversial arrangements for Li's visit to the Pok Fu Lam campus - including a huge police presence blocking key entrances - ultimately overshadowed the university's celebrations, however. A review committee has since found that police used 'unjustifiable' and 'unreasonable' force to contain student protesters in a stairwell.
'HKU hoped that a top official could help us celebrate the centenary, but it would have been impractical for a vice-premier to visit the city solely for this event,' Tsui said. 'When we heard Li would be in Hong Kong in August, the ceremony was scheduled for that time.'
He urged the public not to leap to the conclusion that the event was held just for Li. 'Taken out of context, it could be seen this way, but I don't want people to think that,' he said.
A 150-page report released last week by the university review panel revealed that HKU had less than a month to organise the event after Li's attendance was confirmed.