SCMP: Hong Kong protests: government under fire from across political spectrum for inaction as protesters take over campuses, close Cross-Harbour Tunnel, block roads and firebomb rail tracks
* In first public comments on trouble, President Xi Jinping says putting an end to violence and restoring order remains Hong Kong’s most urgent priority
* He describes continuing violence as challenge to the ‘one country, two systems’ governing principle
The beleaguered Hong Kong government came under mounting criticism from across the political spectrum on Thursday for its failure to bring normalcy back to a city that protesters held hostage for the fourth straight day with their spree of besieging and blocking roads.
The Cross-Harbour Tunnel was effectively defunct for an entire day as protesters put up barricades of chairs, tables and boards they had commandeered from neighbouring Polytechnic University. Later at night, they again set the tollbooths on fire and then, hiding behind their canopy of umbrellas, they unfurled a giant Chinese flag that they set alight.
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