John Lee, Matthew Cheung Back Police Actions At CUHK

Top officials of the Carrie Lam administration on Wednesday defended the actions taken by the police at the Chinese University overnight, after an hours-long standoff.

Footage showed pitched battles between police and students which continued late into the night.

Officers tried to gain control of a bridge leading to the university campus, firing tear gas and rubber bullets continuously, and students replied with a shower of Molotov cocktails and other projectiles.

The Secretary for Security John Lee said the officers deployed on the bridge over the Tolo highway, were just trying to stop things being thrown onto the highway, before they were attacked by petrol bombs.

He said officers were simply trying to do their job and were trying to maintain public safety.

Lee said the act of throwing objects onto the Tolo Highway could have resulted in a serious traffic accident and said that all parts of Hong Kong are regulated by laws here, and there are no exceptions, including universities.

"The police have a duty to ensure that this public safety is maintained. And when something like this, which is so outrageously against the law ... with a lot of violence causing harm to the people there, particularly the police officers, they of course have to take action" he told reporters on Wednesday.

The Chief Secretary, Matthew Cheung, also said that the government is determined to tackle violent protests, and will continue to fully support the police.

He said more than 30 locations were disrupted by anti-government protesters on Tuesday, and more than 200 sets of traffic lights were still out of order on Wednesday morning.

And as much as the government is extremely concerned about the traffic chaos in the past few days, he said violence won't help protesters achieve their goals.