Amid growing fears that China could intervene to stop protests in Hong Kong, the Chinese military has released a promotional video touting its “anti-riot” abilities and the head of the country’s forces in the territory has said further unrest should not be tolerated, The Independent reports.
In the video, soldiers from the Hong Kong Garrison of China's People's Liberation Army can be seen aiming sniper rifles and rappelling from helicopters as part of mass drills.
In one sequence, the three-minute clip shows armed soldiers in riot gear firing tear gas and water cannons at people dressed up as civilian demonstrators - complete with the masks and helmets that have become common in the real-life unrest that began two months ago.
In scenes which have many close parallels to the recent street clashes, soldiers hold up red warning banners declaring: “Stop Charging Or We Use Force”, and one soldier can be heard shouting in Cantonese: “All consequences are at your own risk.”
The video also shows troops laying barbed wire coils on mock city streets as armoured personnel carriers with battering rams race forward, and culminates in soldiers leading handcuffed “civilians” away.
The footage was posted on an official social media account by the Hong Kong Garrison, ostensibly to mark the 92nd anniversary of the founding of the Chinese army.
And in a speech honouring the same event, the garrison’s most senior commander Chen Daoxiang gave his first comments regarding the violent clashes that have become a regular occurrence in the city, a backlash to an unpopular extradition bill that has spiralled into a general display of unhappiness with the Hong Kong government.
Chen said the protests were “absolutely impermissible" according to the state-run China Daily newspaper, and that they were “putting the bottom line of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle to the test”.
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Protesters’ actions had “seriously threatened the life and safety” of the city’s people, he said, and the army stood ready to “resolutely safeguard" the country's sovereignty and security, as well as Hong Kong's stability.
It comes after China staged mass military drills in the southern Guangdong province, which neighbours Hong Kong, fuelling concerns over a large scale intervention.
A US official said the White Housewas monitoring a potential buildup of Chinese troops on the border with the city, which was handed over from Britain to Chinese rule in 1997.
Analysts still believe China has a number of options to exhaust, including a change of administration in Hong Kong, before it would resort to a military intervention.
Steve Tsang, director of Soas University’s China Institute in London, told The Independent last month that “we are thankfully still far from such a scenario”.
Hong Kong still represents a vital financial hub for China, said Andreas Fulda, a China researcher at the University of Nottingham, and the prospect of “a protracted urban armed conflict” would divide the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. He told the Guardian: “The PLA comments are part of psychological warfare against Hong Kongers.”
