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Old 07-24-2019, 01:30 PM
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Exclamation China strikes ominous tone, saying military could intervene in Hong Kong

China strikes ominous tone, saying military could intervene in Hong Kong
By: ALICE SU | LA Times & Stars & Stripes 7-24-19
RE: https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific...-kong-1.591764

Photo link: https://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/..._900/image.jpg
Protesters attempt to use sand bags to block the road to slow down the police on Sunday, July 21, 2019, in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong police used tear gas and bubble bullets against protesters as hundreds of protesters marched off a planned demonstration route.
by GEOVIEN SO/SOPA IMAGES/ZUMA PRESS/TNS

BEIJING (Tribune News Service) — The latest protests in Hong Kong appear to have touched a nerve in Beijing, where officials and state media have escalated rhetoric against the pro-democracy movement, accusing the United States of interference and ominously affirming the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to intervene at the Hong Kong government’s request.

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said at a news conference Wednesday morning that the protests on Sunday were “intolerable.”

“Some radical protesters’ actions challenge the authority of the central government and the bottom line of ‘One Country, Two Systems,’” Wu said, adding that the ministry would follow Article 14 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law.

“One Country, Two Systems” is China’s way of referring to its administration of Hong Kong, under which it is part of China but allowed to maintain some degree of autonomy. Article 14 states that the Chinese government’s military forces stationed in Hong Kong will not interfere in local affairs unless the Hong Kong government requests assistance “in the maintenance of public order” or for disaster relief.

As mass protests against a proposed extradition bill morphed into a desperate pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong over the last two months, the local government has denied rumors that the Chinese military might intervene. Some analysts who study Hong Kong expressed skepticism that Beijing would send its military, which could have devastating consequences.

But Chinese officials and media are now stoking nationalist anger with rhetoric that’s been used to pave the way for crackdowns in the past, specifically with accusations of foreign intervention and condemnations of “chaos” and “disorder.”

Sunday’s protests broadened the scope of conflict as protesters shifted from targeting the Hong Kong territorial government and police to directly challenging the Chinese government.

Thousands marched to Beijing’s representative office in Hong Kong, chanting a pro-independence slogan. They splattered the Chinese government emblem with eggs and black ink and spray-painted the walls with derogatory terms for China.

Later that night, organized pro-Beijing thugs rampaged through a mass transit station in the northern rural area of Yuen Long, beating civilians with metal rods and wooden sticks.

Public fury has swelled against Hong Kong’s police force, which didn’t arrive until an hour after the attacks began and then disappeared before the mob returned to continue attacking people.

Lynette Ong, a University of Toronto political scientist who’s researched the employment of “thugs for hire” in mainland China, said this is a common practice and was used against protesters during the 2014 Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong.

“Governments outsource violence to third-party agents for ‘plausible deniability,’ ” Ong said, adding that the thugs in this case could also have been hired by business interests who want protests to end.

During a pro-Beijing rally on Saturday, Hong Kong newspaper executive Arthur Shek gave a speech encouraging crowds to “discipline” pro-democracy protesters with canes and PVC pipes. “Caning the kids is teaching them, not violence,” he said.

Shek has since resigned, after staff of his paper signed a petition condemning his remarks.

Video has emerged of pro-establishment legislator Junius Ho shaking hands with some of the men in white, as well as of police officers speaking with them, despite official claims that the police had made no arrests that night because they “could not be sure of who was involved.”

Police have since arrested 11 men in connection with the attacks on charges of unlawful assembly. They’ve also arrested more than 120 people in connection with pro-democracy protests since early June.

Protesters trashed Ho’s legislative office Monday and damaged Ho’s parents’ gravestones, spray-painting “official-triad collusion” on a wall above them.

In response, Ho posted a Facebook video making death threats against pro-democratic legislator Eddie Chu, who has spoken up against corruption in rural areas in the past and argued with Ho on a local TV channel on Tuesday.

Ho said Chu had “two paths” before him: “One is a path of being alive, one is a path of not being alive. You must choose which path to take. Decide soon,” he said.

There is no evidence of any connection between Chu and the graveyard vandalism.

While Hong Kongers raise an outcry against the Yuen Long attack, Chinese media have fixated on protesters’ defacement of the Chinese government office.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a news conference Tuesday that the vandalism was a “radical, illegal, violent action” and a “serious challenge to the bottom line of ‘One Country, Two Systems,’” adding that foreign powers were obviously directing these actions behind the scenes.

“Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong. China will absolutely not allow any foreign power to intervene in Hong Kong affairs,” Hua said. “We urge America to withdraw their black hands from Hong Kong before it is too late.”

There has been no evidence of U.S. involvement in the Hong Kong protests, although the U.S.-China trade war has frayed relations between Beijing and Washington.

State media and Chinese social media, which is censored so that only state-approved content appears, shared portrayals of the Hong Kong protesters as violent mobs attacking police and threatening Chinese sovereignty while a “silent majority” of pro-Beijing Hong Kongers cried for help to protect Hong Kong from violence.

State media have said nothing about the Yuen Long mob so far, but social media posts supporting the attackers have been allowed to proliferate.

“If someone wanted to invade your homeland, wouldn’t you resist them rather than welcoming them?” wrote one commenter in defense of the white-shirted attackers. “These rioters came to Yuen Long to create riots first, then the locals in white shirts resisted them.”

It’s a turnaround from earlier media strategy in mainland China, where the peaceful million-person marches in Hong Kong in June were censored.

Only when protesters broke into the legislative building on July 1 did Chinese media begin reporting on the Hong Kong protesters, framed as troublemaking rioters under foreign influence.

“It is like what they tried to do when broadcasting images of upheavals in Western countries to portray an impression of chaotic democracy,” said Ho-fung Hung, sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University. “But such efforts could easily backfire.”

“The mobilization of thugs could further delegitimize the government and make the protest boil over further. The showing of protest footage could also encourage mainland citizens to imitate,” Ho said.

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Personal note: Hong Kong is a beautiful city and I pulled liberty there a few times. It would be a disaster to see it under China rule. The people there know it. The people there have a lot going for it - but China would change their entire system to a full blown communist rule - and they know it.

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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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  #2  
Old 07-24-2019, 01:37 PM
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Arrow China willing to use military to crush Hong Kong protests

China willing to use military to crush Hong Kong protests
BY: Joel Gehrke - Washington Examiner - 7-24-19
RE: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/p...-kong-protests

China is willing to use military force in Hong Kong to quell anti-Beijing protests if the local government cannot contain the political crisis.

“The image of Hong Kong as an oriental pearl must never be stained,” Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesman at China’s national defense ministry, said during a briefing Wednesday in Beijing.

A deployment would be the first use of the military to put down pro-democracy protests since the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989. Wu raised the prospect by citing the Garrison Law that governs the Chinese military’s relationship with Hong Kong. “There are already specific and clear instructions," he said.

Wu's statement came in response to a direct question about whether the defense ministry would “respond to the rising trend of pro-independence forces in Hong Kong,” according to a translation provided by state-run media. China maintains a garrison of roughly 6,000 troops in Hong Kong, but the forces can only be deployed “to carry out the task of assistance in maintenance of public order” if local authorities request the help, according to the law that governs the relationship between the former British colony and the mainland government.

“There is no need to ask for assistance from the garrison,” a Hong Kong government spokesman responded.

The unrest reached new heights on Sunday after protesters vandalized China’s liaison office in Hong Kong, outraging the regime in Beijing. That night, bands of white-shirted men armed with batons descended on a train station filled with people apparently returning from the protests. More than 40 people were hospitalized, but the police didn’t arrive until the attacks were over, and none of the assailants was arrested. Protests have roiled Hong Kong since early June, when the Beijing-backed local government attempted to pass legislation that would allow extraditions to mainland China.

Activists denounced the legislation as "legalized kidnapping" as they warned that Hong Kong judges would have to rubber-stamp extradition requests from the mainland. Local authorities have suspended the effort, but the demonstrations have continued, with protesters demanding the resignation of Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam.

“Some behavior of the radical protesters is challenging the authority of the central government and the bottom line of ‘one country, two systems,’” Wu said. “This is intolerable.”

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Personal note: Once again I'm afraid for the people of Hong Kong. Once the military moves in the whole system will be in total chaos. I think NATO has to get involved to resolve these issues. Bring in a Chinese diplomat but not the military would be a start. I have no doubts that they want the revenue and the naval ports for China usage should a war break out. Those Hong Kong folks know this and they don't want to see a full blown communistic way of life - nor be subject - to a very possible target should a war break out.

Boats
__________________
Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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