Wrapup 1: China rotates Hong Kong garrison as protesters call for democracy

Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels

29/08/2019 03:35

* China moves troops in 'routine rotation' in Hong Kong
    * Protesters plan rally calling for democracy
    * China denounced protests, made clear intervention is
possible

    HONG KONG, Aug 29 (Reuters) - China rotated troops in its
People's Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong on Thursday, days
before protesters plan to hold a march and rally calling for
full democracy for the Chinese-ruled city after three months of
sometimes violent demonstrations.
    Chinese state media described the troop movement in the
early hours as routine, while Asian and Western diplomats
watching PLA movements in the former British colony had been
expecting it.
    But, even if routine, the timing is likely to hit nerves in
the "special administrative region" of Hong Kong, which returned
to China in 1997.
    Observers estimate the Hong Kong garrison numbers between
8,000 and 10,000 troops split between bases in southern China
and a network of former British army barracks in Hong Kong.
    China has denounced the protests and accused the United
States and Britain of interfering in its affairs in Hong Kong.
It has sent clear warnings that forceful intervention is
possible.
    Beijing warned again on Tuesday against foreign governments
interfering in the Hong Kong protests, after the G7 summit of
leaders of seven industrialised nations called for violence to
be avoided.
    Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has also not ruled out the
possibility her administration could invoke emergency powers to
quell the protests. She said in a news briefing on Tuesday that
violence was becoming more serious but was confident the
government could handle the crisis itself.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N25N0LN
    Chinese state news agency Xinhua said: "The Hong Kong
Garrison of the Chinese People's Liberation Army conducted the
22nd rotation of its members in the wee hours of Thursday since
it began garrisoning Hong Kong in 1997."
    "Approved by the Central Military Commission, the move is
normal routine annual rotation in line with the Law of the
People's Republic of China on Garrisoning the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region, which stipulates that 'the Hong Kong
Garrison shall practise a system of rotation of its members'."
    The announcement of the annual troop rotation in 2018
included the phrase "the number of soldiers and amount of
equipment of the troops stationed in the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region was maintained with no change".
    That phrase was not used in the latest announcement.
    
    MORE PROTESTS
    The Civil Human Rights Front, the organiser of previous mass
protests in Hong Kong that they said attracted up to two million
people, plans a rally from Central to Beijing’s main
representative office in Hong Kong on Saturday, although the
protest has not yet received a police permit.
    The protest would mark five years since Beijing issued a
White Paper that ruled out universal suffrage for Hong Kong. 
    Protesters targeted the representative office in July,
daubing anti-China slogans on its walls.
    The protests come as Hong Kong faces its first recession in
a decade, with all its pillars of growth under stress.
    Unrest escalated in mid-June over a now-suspended
extradition bill that would have allowed people to be sent to
mainland China for trial in Communist Party-controlled courts.
    It has since evolved into calls for greater democracy under
the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong has
been run since 1997, guaranteeing freedoms not enjoyed on the
mainland that include an independent judiciary.
    The protests in the Asian financial hub have posed the
biggest challenge for Communist Party rulers in Beijing since
President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.
    Authorities in Beijing are eager to quell the unrest before
the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of
China on Oct. 1, when Xi will oversee a large military parade in
the Chinese capital.

 (Reporting by Donny Kwok, Greg Torode and Anne Marie Roantree
in HONG KONG, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Writing by Nick
Macfie; Editing by Paul Tait)
 ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 28431631 ;))