China rotated thousands of new troops into its garrison in Hong Kong on Thursday days before protesters planned to hold a march calling for full democracy after three months of sometimes violent demonstrations.
China’s military will make even greater contributions to maintaining Hong Kong’s “prosperity and stability”, state news agency Xinhua cited the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the territory as saying.
It also described the troop movement in the early hours as “routine”, while Asian and Western diplomats watching the movements of the PLA in the former British colony had been expecting it.
Protesters in Hong Kong must respect the law and the military garrison there had the determination to defend the territory, defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang told a news briefing.
Witnesses saw significantly more activity in and around the PLA’s Shek Kong military base in the rural New Territories than has been apparent in recent months.
“Before coming… we learned about the situation of Hong Kong,” PLA officer Lieutenant-Colonel Yang Zheng said in a PR video. “We’ve strengthened our training … to make sure we can fulfill our defence duties.”OPINION
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Regardless of the movement being called routine, the timing was likely to hit nerves in the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese control in 1997 under a “one state, two systems” agreement.
In recent weeks, alarms were raised in Hong Kong after the massing of Chinese forces was revealed across the border in the mainland city of Shenzhen.
China has warned it will not “sit by and watch” as unrest continued in the semi-autonomous city.
