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The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) garrison in Hong Kong released a video showing a military drill, on July 31st, on its official Weibo account.
MSM claims that this is a “thinly veiled” warning towards the “pro-democracy” movement in Hong Kong. It is yet unclear which movement MSM refer to, since none of the protests so far have called for democracy in the slightest.
It is also unclear why it is called “thinly veiled,” as it is quite an apparent warning against any further escalations, such as defacing the Legislative Council building, or the Chinese Representative’s Office.
The three-minute video showcases the PLA’s tanks, helicopter gunfire, rocket launchers and other military hardware in action in Hong Kong, as well as heavily armed troops performing an anti-terrorism drill. It’s quite professionally made.
It also features an “anti-riot” drill in which armed soldiers, armored personnel carriers and water cannons are used to disperse a crowd of protesters.
Thus, “thinly veiled” is quite a dull classification.
At the beginning of the drill, a soldier, speaking Cantonese (which is spoken in HK, rather than Mainland China’s Mandarin) yells into a loudspeaker:
“All consequences are at your own risk.”
Finally, the video concludes with an affirmation, that HK is part of China.
“We are … confident and capable of firmly maintaining national sovereignty, safety, development interests and maintaining Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability in the long run,” it said.
When asked about the video, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing:
“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.”
On July 31st, Hua Chunying answered a question about a rumor of Chinese troops position at the “border” between China and Hong Kong. And that the White House considered it risky and that China shouldn’t “over-intervene” in an issue within its own territory.
The US Department of State said that Chunying’s accusations on the previous day were “ludicrous.” She said that that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had forgotten himself and that he wasn’t the CIA director anymore, and that the protests were to a large degree fueled by specific actors from the US and the EU.
“On your first question, I’m not aware of what you said. If the White House truly hopes for peace, stability and prosperity in Hong Kong, they should advise those violent protesters and radicals to express their demands in a peaceful rather than violent way.
On your second question, do you find that ludicrous? I don’t think it ludicrous at all. Judging from many recent media reports including those I mentioned yesterday, any unbiased person who doesn’t selectively turn a blind eye to the facts can see the truth clearly and make fair judgments. The US indeed owes the world an honest and candid explanation. Of course, if it can prove and promise that it has not interfered in Hong Kong affairs and will not do so in the future, we most certainly welcome that.
There’s something more I want to say. As journalists, you may have your own perspectives. But all people, including journalists and officials, should tell right from wrong and have a fair judgment on whether those incidents are peaceful protests or radical, violent behaviors. Am I right? Taking this opportunity, I’d like to say this to our friends from the press. When you report the recent developments in Hong Kong, besides taking pictures of the police, please do turn your lens to those radical and violent activities, too. By doing so you will provide the world with more objective and comprehensive scenes, based on which people will draw impartial, fair and fact-based conclusions.
I believe the 1.4 billion Chinese people, including over seven million Hong Kong residents, all hope for peace, stability and prosperity in Hong Kong. What recently happened in Hong Kong saddens Hong Kong-lovers and gladdens its haters. I believe all those truly love Hong Kong and China and all those with a sense of justice have realized that.”
On August 1st, protests in Hong Kong continued, with more arrests of protesters accused of “rioting.”
The police said seven men and one woman, between the ages of 24 and 31 were arrested. They included Andy Chan, founder of the Hong Kong National party – it was banned in 2018.
In a separate operation a family of three was detained on suspicion of possessing explosives, after police raided an apartment and seized partially made smoke bombs.
The arrests come after 44 detained protesters were charged with rioting, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Despite the claims by US State Department and co., US President Donald Trump actually abstained from critics and said that it was China’s business, since HK was part of the country.
“Somebody said that at some point they’re going to want to stop that,” Trump told reporters. “But that’s between Hong Kong and that’s between China, because Hong Kong is a part of China.”
He called the protests “riots,” which is in line with what Beijing and the HK authorities call them, not what his administration calls them.
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NATO could start sizing all Chinese assets and ships in case they mass murder HK people. China doesn’t even have nuclear warheads on its submarines
Or….., here’s an original thought….., why not stay the fuck away from what other countries are doing in their own countries? Who appointed NATO as Team NATO! World Police! After all, if Russia supposedly meddles in US elections, or supposedly supports the French yellow vests, nobody seems to like that external meddling. I reckon the same applies to other countries as well. And after all, Saudi Arabia mass murders people in Yemen every day. And NATO does fuck all about that. Oh, wait, NATO actually supports that.
And besides, China can reciprocate as there are a shitload of Westerners in both HK and China in general. Multinationals usually don’t like it when they become victims of Western foreign policy. And they usually tend to complain about that to those Western governments. And Western governments always seem to listen to those complaints.
I agree with most of your examples, I said could that doesn’t mean they already should. Just in case they run with tanks over civilians on streets.
If the past results of our interventions has only proven disastrous, why should this one suddenly turn out magically successful? Also considering we’re now going to go up against a nuclear power and a permanent member of the UNSC?
Even if they do run with tanks over civilians, why is this our problem? Because it sets a bad precedent? That ship sailed long ago when we allowed our allies to do the exact same thing. Saudi tanks ran over Bahreini civilians without Western protest. Saudi aircraft bomb Yemeni civilians without Western protest.
Either we apply this humanitarian principle consistently or we don’t apply it at all, less it gets revealed we do apply it inconsistently and it gets revealed for what it really is, a tool the West likes to use to coerce those that disagree with it.
I never understood how could the West let their corporations do business with a country like China that soon could set up an example in the world and your own country could be inspired by the new trend. It’s a lot better for people who believe in individual property and freedom – the West to have a cold war with China instead of being influenced by its politics and collectivist culture.
And that is why you fail at capitalism. No moral judgment intended. But the business of business is business, not politics. And considering the way that immigration and social justice activism and identity politics are tearing apart the West I reckon that collectivist China is in a better position to win that Cold War. It’s been around for far longer then the West has. On average the Chinese are incredibly nationalist and believe in their country and its right to become a great power. Whereas in the West nationalism has become a dirty word and we bend over backwards to apologize for every possible offensive and past history. If we don’t believe in ourselves, what makes you think we can win from people who do?
And that’s excluding the fact that the West is one more financial crisis away from collapse. If another one happens there are no more instruments to handle it. We’ve already racked ourselves up into debt to pay for the last crisis, interest rates are already at zero, central banks are printing money like its going out of fashion. All the traditional instruments to counter another recession are already exhausted. And its the Chinese who hold a lot of our debt.
I’m in my 50’s and I’ve reached that point in life where I bitch and moan about what society has become, them kids of today and that retirement interests me more then what remains of my career. I can only hope that there is something left to retire with when its my turn, while everything I see around me only gives me reason to be more pessimistic. I feel like Rome is about to go up in flames while everyone is more interested about the gender of the person with the fiddle.
May you live well and long enough to see the change you would like to see in our society, I only hope it’s not a totalitarian Chinese or Russian inspired one ;)
‘NATO could start sizing (sic) all Chinese assets and ships…’
And that would be an act of war against China, genius. And on what grounds would this war be launched – internal Chinese political issues?! Based on your logic, should NATO likewise start seizing Spanish assets and ships for Spain’s clamp down against separatist Catalonians?!
Don’t worry about Catalans, Spain will not run with tanks over them.
As for its contents, a typical PLA promotional video like you see on the mainland all the time. Releasing it in this context, I have to say it’s typical Chinese clumsiness that constantly rubs HK’ers the wrong way. With eyes on HK, the garrison must’ve felt it’s a good time to talk up its prowess. But these riots are not a military or terrorist threat to Hong Kong: the analogy with the Maidan only goes so far, there’s not a firearm in sight nor are those just lying around everywhere in Wanchai like in Kiev. If the blackshirts vandalize property and use violence against the police they should be arrested, tried under law, and put in jail. If someone, foreigner or not, pays others to do these things, they should be put in jail for a good deal longer. How hard can it be to infiltrate the protesters and find out who’s behind it, do HK police even have that skill set.
Things change with the explosives which the police apparently found with the protesters, though as we see in this article, sometimes an “explosive” turns out to be just some smoke bombs, and people use big words with little justification.
Olga Misik manifests in Russia, Greta Thunberg in Europe, Bana Alabed in Syria, Nouf Iqab Enfeat in Palesina, are all teenage girls, but only one of them was murdered by the dictatorial and bloody regime they protested against. What will the regime be?
well if the PLA intervenes a bloodbath is guaranteed. Anyway I see no de-escalation is the crisis ahead….both sides are determined to go all the way…..