Lingnan University president attends Yuen Long protest with colleagues as ‘observer’, says he is worried about dangers facing students and staff

Varsity president Leonard Cheng asks students to take care of safety and not to be involved in clash

Around 1,000 students, staff and alumni march on campus earlier in the day, demanding expulsion of lawmaker Junius Ho from governing council

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Leonard Cheng, the president of Lingnan University, said he attended the protest at Yuen Long not to show support but to ensure safety of students, staff and alumni. Photo: Handout

Published: 7:19pm, 27 Jul 2019Updated: 11:46pm, 27 Jul 2019

President of Hong Kong’s Lingnan University Leonard Cheng Kwok-hon on Saturday took the unusual step of attending the march in Yuen Long as an “observer” for about half an hour, two hours before police officers fired tear gas at protesters.

Cheng, who said he was worried about the dangers facing students and staff, became the first incumbent university chief to show up at a major protest since the Occupy movement of 2014.

Lingnan University is one of Hong Kong’s eight publicly-funded universities.

On October 2, 2014, University of Hong Kong vice-chancellor Peter Mathieson and his Chinese University counterpart Joseph Sung Jao-yiu went down to Admiralty to talk to the crowd in front of the Chief Executive’s Office, pleading with students to avoid conflict and not destroy the movement’s good name.

Police said the protest in Yuen Long on Saturday was an unlawful assembly, as they had rejected the organisers’ application for a letter of no objection.

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