As Hong Kong’s political crisis simmers amid heated protests, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) garrison in the territory released a video showing footage of “anti-riot” exercises and its top brass warned violence is “absolutely impermissible.”
The three-minute video posted on the garrison’s official microblogging account late on Wednesday included footage of troops firing guns and rockets, and of light tanks, attack helicopters and missile launchers.
Garrison personnel have remained in barracks since protests started in April, leaving Hong Kong’s police force to deal with the massive and often violent protests.
Photo: AFP / China’s People’s Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison
On Wednesday, 44 people were charged with rioting, the first time authorities have resorted to using the rioting charge.
In one sequence in the PLA video, titled “anti-riot drill footage,” ranks of troops advance with shields and truncheons on “protesters,” firing rifles into the air, while tear gas and water cannons rain down on protesters, armored personnel carriers with battering rams race forward and troops lay barbed-wire coils on the ground.
“All consequences are at your own risk,” one soldier shouts in Cantonese in the video.
A red flag with the words: “Warning. Stop charging or we use force” was also held aloft, similar to what Hong Kong police have long used during protests.
Hong Kong has been plunged into its biggest political crisis since the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997 by a wave of protests against a now-suspended extradition bill, which would allow people to be sent to the mainland for trial in Chinese Communist Party-controlled courts.
The protests have transformed into broader demands, including the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) and calls for a “free Hong Kong.”
As tensions continue to rise, clashes between protesters and police have become increasingly violent.
Chinese authorities have strongly condemned the violence, issuing reminders that Hong Kong authorities can request the assistance of the PLA’s Hong Kong garrison if necessary.
Diplomats and foreign security analysts are watching the situation closely, but believe that there is little appetite in Beijing for the PLA to be deployed on the streets of Hong Kong.
The role of the PLA in Hong Kong has long been one of the most sensitive elements of the territory’s handover to China.
“We believe that the Hong Kong garrison of the People’s Liberation Army will continue to become a stabilizing pillar for Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) told a briefing in Beijing when asked about the video.
Amid growing speculation that troops could be unleashed to quell violence, police chiefs have insisted that their forces are capable of maintaining order.
The state-run China Daily quoted Major General Chen Daoxiang (陳道祥), the commander of the Hong Kong garrison, as saying that the violent protests in the territory are “absolutely impermissible.”
Speaking at a reception to mark the 92nd anniversary of the PLA, Chen said that the protests were “putting the bottom line of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle to the test.”
The PLA would “resolutely safeguard” China’s sovereignty and security, as well as Hong Kong’s stability, he added.
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