Global Times chief calls for Hong Kong University of Science and Technology boycott over attack on mainland student
- Tabloid’s editor-in-chief calls for mainlanders to shun university unless it condemns attack during row between groups of students
- Clashes broke out during event to discuss fall of 22-year-old Chow Tsz-lok, who later died from his injuries
The editor-in-chief of a Chinese state tabloid has called for mainland students to boycott the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology unless it condemns an attack on a student during a campus event on Wednesday.
The incident happened during a forum to address the circumstances of the fall suffered by 22-year-old HKUST student Chow Tsz-lok, who died from his injuries on Friday.
In Wednesday’s incident the mainland student, identified as Zheng Candi in media reports, was hit on the forehead during a clash between rival camps of students.
In total four students were injured, one of whom was taken away in a wheelchair.
Live-stream video footage broadcast on the portal HK01 shows Zheng walking past a group of masked student protesters holding signs near the stage. He then knocked into a black-clad protester, who fell to the floor.
An angry crowd then surrounded him, yelling abuse and hitting him on the head repeatedly, as three staff members tried to calm the situation.
Protesters also opened their umbrellas as the scrum descended into chaos and staff tried to escort Zheng out, all the while urging people to calm down.
In a Weibo post on Thursday, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the nationalist Global Times, urged the university to condemn the incident, punish the attackers and apologise to its mainland students.
“If HKUST does not give a satisfactory response on this matter, I recommend that all mainland students do not apply to HKUST next year,” he wrote.
“The school’s place in global rankings would surely fall as a result of losing mainland students and resources. Mainland Chinese businesspeople should also suspend funding towards all HKUST projects.”
Hu also warned that failing to condemn the incident could result in more acts of violence against mainlanders at other Hong Kong university campuses.
“This incident could be one more step towards demonstrating that Hong Kong rioters can beat up mainlanders whenever they want.”
Dozens of angry students trash university facilities and president’s residence
On Friday, a group of HKUST professors circulated a petition calling for university president Wei Shyy to protect students and staff from violence on campus and to punish those responsible for the attack.
The letter also claimed that the victim had been doxxed – had his personal information leaked online – and that the protester’s fall that led to the “lynching” was a “set-up well planned by the mob”.
“So far, to our great disappointment, the university has done nothing to openly address such outrageous violence,” the letter said.
“We hereby strongly urge the university to come up with effective measures to restore law and order back to our campus.”
One professor at the university said: “There is indeed a letter circulating but it has not been sent to the president. Everyone is concerned about the current situation and the earlier incidents, and we are trying our best to maintain the order and peace of the campus.”
Hong Kong student who suffered severe brain injury after car park fall has died
The forum was meant to discuss the incident in which Chow fell from the third floor of a car park in Tseung Kwan O early on Monday, suffering a severe brain injury.
The fall reportedly happened while police were firing rounds of tear gas during a dispersal operation nearby.
It is not clear whether Chow had taken part in the protests.
The university said it was collecting information and would decide after investigation whether the case would be passed on to the Student Disciplinary Committee.
Meanwhile on Thursday, a mainland Chinese student threatened student protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a knife as they demonstrated during a graduation ceremony.
In video footage the student was shown saying he did not want to be attacked like the HKUST student the previous day. He was later led away to a campus security centre.
The HKUST incident follows the widely publicised attack on a mainland Chinese JP Morgan banker in early October, who was punched by a black-clad protester after saying “We are all Chinese”.
Mainland media has highlighted sporadic incidents of verbal and physical assaults against mainlanders in Hong Kong as a result of rising tensions from the protests.
At Hong Kong universities, disagreements have often broken out between mainland and local students over the protests.
Mainland students have been criticised for tearing down posters on campus Lennon Walls and damaging symbols of protest such as the Goddess of Democracy statue.
There are around 1 million mainland Chinese living in Hong Kong, making up around a seventh of the city’s population.
The majority of non-local students at Hong Kong universities come from the mainland, according to a report from the University Grants Committee.
Hong Kong has been rocked by more than five months of anti-government unrest, sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill.
