Peace paramount for Hong Kong

Fueling hopes among ordinary residents that the situation in Hong Kong may have calmed at least temporarily, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel reopened on Wednesday and search teams sweeping the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus for a second day found no rioters still holding out.

The polytechnic university campus was one of five that the rioters occupied to use as bases from which to disrupt the city, especially its transport arteries, such as the nearby Cross-Harbour Tunnel linking the Kowloon peninsula to Hong Kong Island. It became a battleground when the rioters tried to turn it into their last stronghold for a confrontation with the police. That the young rioters were encouraged by Western media and politicians shows how callous and self-serving some in the West are in pushing their anti-China agenda forward, because it is not they who bear the consequences of the illegal acts they have incited.

The university on Wednesday requested help from the government to remove "dangerous materials", including explosives, from the site, which is also littered with hazardous rotting waste and detritus from the rioters' occupation.