The Battle at CUHK

Police fire nonstop rounds of teargas at students in Chinese University today

As I write this we are seeing Tiananmen 2.0 playing out on the campus of Chinese University of Hong Kong in Sha Tin minus live rounds and tanks.

For over 12 hours the police have been firing hundreds, maybe more than a thousand canisters of tear gas at the students, who in turn throw Molotov cocktails and set up barriers to prevent the police from moving closer.

It's heart wrenching to see this happening -- and what for? What is the police force's end game? Is it their attempt to shut down the students once and for all? If anything this makes the young people look even more like martyrs for the cause.

For alumnae watching their alma mater turn into a battlefield, it's difficult for them to comprehend this was the place where they spent four years gaining knowledge and meeting friends, learning more about themselves, and now it is a complete disaster zone that has become unrecognizable.

On the left a water cannon with blue dye sprays protesters

How did we get to this point?

UPDATE 10:25pm. The police are now retreating, after having brought a water cannon all the way up to the campus only to use it once or twice.

Just as the water cannon was being used, the police issued a statement that said:

"As the night fell, the situation remained tense in Chinese University of Hong Kong. In pursuit of a peaceful solution to diffuse the situation, the Police have communicated with the school and are arranging a retreat to stop the standoff. The Police appeal to protesters to stop charging. A Specialized Crowd Management Vehicle is on stand-by at the scene and will be deployed to assist a retreat if necessary.

"In the meantime, the protesters in CUHK are reminded to refrain from throwing objects onto Tolo Highway and MTR track. Such acts seriously hamper the safety of train system and threaten passengers' safety."

Professor Dennis Ng tries to speak to the police commander

Can someone please edit the police's statement before it goes out to the public? Too many grammatical errors to take what they said seriously...

Earlier Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Dennis Ng tried to persuade the students to stop their actions, saying the police would stop firing, but instead the police went back on their word and fired tear gas at Ng. He had to be treated with saline solution by first aiders.

He tried to call his police contact three times. "It's just out of control," he told the police commander on the phone.

At least he tried to engage both sides a few times, and for now it has worked.

Early evening in Central and Pedder Street is blocked

The students also got massive support from people with cars who occupied Tolo Highway to prevent more police vehicles from going to the campus. 

Today were more scenes of disruption from the morning's commute to office workers descending on Pedder Street again and occupying the area, and also tear gas fired in City University in Kowloon Tong and destruction in the University of Hong Kong.

Thank goodness there weren't the insane scenes we saw yesterday with the 21-year-old protester shot with a live round, and a man immolated in Ma On Shan, but still it's incredible the Hong Kong government refuses to believe these protests involve more than just young people.

But -- but -- there is a clip of a pregnant woman who berated police officers and their reply? Squirting pepper spray into her eyes and physically subduing her. Is her baby going to be OK?

At lunchtime in Central officer workers come out to protest

Whenever there are traffic disruptions or protesters setting up barricades and the media ask middle-aged people how they feel about this, the vast majority say it's because of the government. They don't berate the youth, but instead say Chief Executive Carrie Lam has done nothing to find a political solution after five months of protests.

Yesterday she called the protesters "enemies of the people", but in fact she and her administration are the enemies of the people. Her attempt at driving a wedge between the hardcore and moderate protesters is not working.

So how is she going to clean up this crazy mess she has created? We're still waiting...

UPDATE: 12:37am. The police lied about retreating and they are still firing teargas at the students. There are also long lines of police vehicles blocking emergency vehicles to get to the 30 or so protesters who have been injured. Unfortunately this battle has not ended yet... another sleepless night for Hong Kong.