China yesterday sent fresh troops to Hong Kong as part of a “routine” garrison rotation, as the territory braced for a new round of violent protests after police refused permission for a mass rally this weekend.
Hong Kong has been mired in more than three months of political crisis, with police and protesters engaging in increasingly violent clashes, prompting Beijing to ramp up its rhetoric and a public relations campaign against the anti-government movement.
Chinese state media broadcast a video of armored personnel carriers and trucks driving across the Hong Kong border, describing it as a routine rotation of the garrison stationed in the semi-autonomous territory.
Photo: Reuters
“The Hong Kong garrison of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army [PLA] on Thursday morning completed the 22nd rotation since it began garrisoning Hong Kong in 1997,” Xinhua news agency reported.
“Before coming ... we learned about the situation of Hong Kong,” PLA Lieutenant Colonel Yang Zheng (楊政) said in a slick public relations video. “We’ve strengthened our training ... to make sure we can fulfill our defense duties.”
The rotation came less than 24 hours after police denied permission for a new mass rally planned for tomorrow that was expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people to the streets — the 13th consecutive week of protests.
Police have previously denied permission for rallies to take place, but the orders have largely been ignored.
In a letter to the rally organizers, the Civil Human Rights Front, police said that they feared some participants would commit “violent and destructive acts.”
Protesters have carried out “arson and large-scale road blockades” and “used petrol bombs, steel balls, bricks, long spears, metal poles, as well as various self-made weapons to destroy public property,” the letter said of previous rallies.
On Sunday, police deployed water cannon trucks for the first time and one officer fired a live round as a warning shot from his sidearm to fend off protesters after a sanctioned rally erupted into some of the worst violence of the past three months.
Tomorrow’s rally was called to mark five years since Beijing rejected political reforms in Hong Kong, a decision which sparked 79 days of political protests that became known as the “Umbrella movement.”
Civil Human Rights Front leader Jimmy Sham (岑子杰) — who said that he escaped unhurt after being attacked by masked men with a baseball bat and knife earlier yesterday — said that the group would appeal the police decision.
“You can see the police’s course of action is intensifying, and you can see [Hong Kong Chief Executive] Carrie Lam [林鄭月娥] has in fact no intention to let Hong Kong return to peace,” Sham said.
Anti-government demonstrators have been urged to gather in the city center and march to the Hong Kong Liaison Office, which represents China’s central government in the territory, but both aspects, which need permission from authorities, have been banned.
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