Students continue protests outside schools as their deadline for Hong Kong government to meet demands looms
- Boycott rally at Baptist University draws 150 people while human chains also formed at Open University and 14 secondary schools
- Students say escalation of violence by more radical protesters is ‘understandable’
Hundreds of secondary and university students staged protests – including class boycotts and human chains – on Tuesday, as part of the continuing demonstrations against the now-withdrawn extradition bill.
Keith Fong Chung-yin, president of the student union of Baptist University (HKBU), where 150 people joined an hour-long class boycott rally at noon, warned of staging another mass protest with other university students if the governments fails to meet all five demands of protesters by Friday.
An estimated 30,000 university students staged a mass rally at Chinese University on September 2 to launch the protests in campuses across the city, with thousands forming human chains and a smaller number boycotting classes in the past week.
Despite Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s announcement last week that she would formally withdraw the bill, protesters say that the government acceding to one of their five demands was too little, too late.
Demonstrators also want an inquiry into the police’s response to the protests; amnesty for arrested protesters; authorities to stop characterising the protests as riots; and universal suffrage.
The street protests that have gripped the city since early June have, increasingly, ended in clashes with protesters lighting fires, throwing petrol bombs and vandalising MTR facilities, and police officers firing beanbag rounds and tear gas in response.
While the escalation in violence has drawn criticism, some students said they found it understandable.
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“We can’t blame radical protesters for using violence if the government doesn’t listen even when one million and then two million people assemble peacefully,” said Calvin Lam Hei-chuk, 22, the HKBU student union’s welfare officer, referring to the estimated record turnouts for extradition bill marches in June. “If it weren’t for the radicals, I don’t think Lam would have officially withdrawn the bill. I don’t condemn it.”
Fong, the student union president, said: “I don’t think protesters are using violence. The word violence means rioters attacking citizens or shops with no purpose but to express their anger. All the protesters’ anger and force is directed at the government and the police.
“Hongkongers have protested peacefully for over 20 years but we’ve gained nothing. Now demonstrators tend to be more aggressive to make the government hear their voice.”
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But 19-year-old government and international studies student Edwin Chow, who boycotted all classes last week and some this week, wants to see more peaceful protests.
“I don’t support violent acts and want more peaceful protests, but I understand why people are becoming more violent – demonstrating peacefully is no use,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of students at Open University and 14 schools in Tai Po and Kowloon City formed human chains at their campuses.
Meanwhile, a Hong Kong man accused of attacking a teacher with a boxcutter outside a secondary school during a human-chain protest on Monday was denied bail by a court on Tuesday.
Retiree Fu Chu-biu, 65, made his first court appearance a day after the alleged attack outside Cognitio College in Ngau Tau Kok.
Kwun Tong Court heard the Ngau Tau Kok resident accused of unlawfully and maliciously wounding Peggy To Pui-yu, 33.
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Fu was not required to enter a plea on one count of wounding and will return to court on Friday.
Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said on Tuesday that the government was aware of human-chain activities outside schools and called for participants “to have second thoughts”.
“We appeal to the students that they have to consider their own safety when attending these activities and we also appeal to schools and parents to ask their children to carefully consider when they attend them.”
Yeung dodged a question on the total number of secondary school students who skipped class last week and only said the Education Bureau had not received any complaints about bullying.
Additional reporting by Jasmine Siu
