Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers urge PolyU president to students on hunger strike over losing rights to ‘democracy wall’
Support grows for Polytechnic University group as campus protest continues during open day event
Twenty-three pro-democracy lawmakers have urged the president of Polytechnic University to meet students taking part in a hunger strike to protest against school management seizing control of a bulletin board where pro-independence messages were posted.
In an open letter to president Timothy Tong Wai-cheung, the lawmakers said he should solve the problem “rationally” and return the right to manage the “democracy wall” back to students, as part of upholding free speech on campus.
It came after student unions from six Hong Kong universities on Saturday threw their support behind their PolyU peers after a Chinese University masters degree student joined the two undergraduates on their hunger strike.
The trio pledged to drink only water until their bodies could not “take it any longer” or until officials promised not to interfere in the wall.
Hendrick Lui Chi-hang arrived at the institution’s Hung Hom campus on Friday night, soon after PolyU student union president Lam Wing-hang and union council chairman Victor Yuen Pak-leung launched their campaign.