Shooting of Hong Kong schoolboy Tsang Chi-kin ‘totally legal and appropriate’, Chinese state media says

China’s state media has defended the shooting of a Hong Kong schoolboy by a police officer on Tuesday as “totally legal and appropriate”, once again blaming the protests in the city on unidentified “manipulators”.

Secondary school student Tsang Chi-kin, 18, became the first protester to be shot with a live round since the start of the anti-government protests in June.

Critics said the police officer who fired the shot acted on a misjudgment and should have tried to de-escalate the situation rather than use potentially lethal force. The city’s police authority defended the officer, saying he believed his life was in danger.

“Rioters attacked police officers on a great scale at Tsuen Wan,” Xinhua said in a commentary early Wednesday morning. “The life of the officer at the scene was under serious threat and he was forced to shoot at the assailant to protect his own life as well as his colleagues.”