Editor's note: Huang Jiyuan is an opinion editor with CGTN Digital. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Taking the violence onto a college campus is dangerous. And deliberately using a school as a shield and bringing terror to students crosses a line.

In the last few days, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has plunged into chaos. Clashes between police and rioters reached a "deadly level." School officials' call for peace was overshadowed by flying Molotov cocktails and tear gas. Many students from the Chinese mainland have been evacuated from the campus for fear of being targeted.

No university campus should be turned into a battleground. No academic officials should be forced to mediate between the police and students. No students should be afraid of simply being who they are. And most importantly, rioters should not be causing this kind of havoc to their own school, their own professors, and their peers.

This is not just a moral call. Events in the past two days have far-reaching ramifications beyond a simple right versus wrong judgement.

Hong Kong is special. Its historical background and governance structure have made the city a unique blend of Western and Chinese cultures and systems. The city has been a gateway between the West and the Chinese mainland. 

The prosperity and the position the city have enjoyed in the past several decades is predicated on its residents being able to communicate smoothly with foreigners and understanding how the Chinese market operates.

The past several days have upended and politicized both for the future. Although hostility toward Chinese mainland residents has been on the rise, experiencing this at school is different from experiencing it in society. 

In society, the conversation is inextricably tied to the economy. The comparison between economic inequality in Hong Kong and the rise of Chinese mainland have been attributed by many as a main cause of the protest. Socio-economic status is also a focal point that the Hong Kong authority set to address and resolve once the violence ends. 

On college campuses, things are more straightforward. The fear that Mandarin-speaking students experience is strictly because of the fact that they are from Chinese mainland. It is their background that's being targeted.

This is a dangerous step towards identity politics, and dragging the school into the middle of this elevates it to a more insidious level. A school's duty is to prepare students for the society and protect them from harms they are not ready for – even when it means protecting them from each other.

At the moment, however, it is hard for administrators to take necessary steps toward fulfilling their duty. If they are harsh toward the rioting students, they risk inciting more violence and unrest on campus and turning the school into a target for rioters. If they take no action toward protecting Chinese mainland students, they will be responsible for turning the system hostile toward a part of the school. 

Either way, administrators' actions have the potential to result in a systematic change in the school-student body relationship.

And when schools' systems are altered, students coming out of it will inevitably be different. Regardless of which way they lean, identity politics would very likely carry extend into society and further inflame and polarize the existing tension. Making a school the center of the conflict risks passing it on to future generations.

Therefore, for all the unrest and violence experienced in the 24 weeks of protests, the last several days has stood out as being particularly dangerous. Though schools have been suspended and many have ended the semester prematurely, it is important for administrators to find a way to manage and harmonize student-to-student relationships at the moment and after everything quiets down.

Schools are designed to have long-term effects, let's make sure the effects they have are constructive. 

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