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Hong Kong protests
Hong KongPolitics

With an on-campus kitchen, a production line making petrol bombs and a training camp to practise throwing them, Chinese University has become a base for Hong Kong’s radical protesters

  • Two days on from vicious clashes between protesters and police, scenic campus overlooking Tolo Harbour has become a stronghold for activists
  • Campus landscape has levelled playing field in ‘war with police’, one frontline protester says, while other universities in Hong Kong are starting to take note

Reading Time:5 minutes
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Anti-government protesters set up roadblocks at the entrance of Chinese University. Photo: Sam Tsang
Jeffie Lam,Alvin LumandSum Lok-kei
Visitors and staff trying to enter a university in Hong Kong that was the site of a fiery battlefield between protesters and police on Tuesday have encountered a makeshift checkpoint.

Protesters wearing black who guard the booth – made of bamboo sticks, umbrellas and a door from a trashed car – have roughly searched through any visitor belongings and questioned the purpose of their visit to the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in Sha Tin.

A plank at the checkpoint has the words “CU arrival” scrawled on it.

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The protesters claimed their intention was to prevent plain-clothes police officers from getting onto the campus but it has resulted in many people, especially university staff, feeling disgruntled and saying they have a right to enter as an employee of the school.

Two days on from fierce clashes that saw an exchange of petrol bombs and tear gas between protesters and police, scorching and scarring the 137-hectare scenic campus overlooking Tolo Harbour, the university has been turned into a stronghold for the activists.
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Barricades are no longer made of sticks and projectiles but strengthened by concrete and bricks. A charging booth for power banks and cellphones has been established.

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