Countdown to martial law in Hong Kong?

This is a Chinese PLA propaganda video via SCMP.

Chinese army's Hong Kong garrison releases video showing anti-riot drills, featuring tanks

Hong Kong’s Nightmare Scenario Is Chinese Troops on Streets

• Once unthinkable, PLA intervention is now on analysts’ radars
• It’s seen as a last resort given potentially dire consequences
  

Bloomberg,

2 August, 2019

It has suddenly become one of the biggest questions in Hong Kong: What will the Chinese military do?

After eight weeks of increasingly violent unrest -- and more anti-government protests planned for this weekend -- anxiety is growing that Beijing might call in the People’s Liberation Army. China seems willing to at least feed the speculation with hints and signals, including the release of a video Wednesday showing troops practicing riot control.

While a military intervention appears remote, the possibility has set nerves on edge in the former British colony and prompted at least one investment bank to flag it as a risk. Since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule 22 years ago, the PLA’s troops in the city have played a minimal role. Should that change, the implications for both Hong Kong and China would be enormous.

Members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at a demonstration during an open day at the Ngong Shuen Chau Barracks in Hong Kong on June 30.

The biggest fear for some is a repeat of the deadly crackdown that took place in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square three decades ago, potentially prompting the U.S. to withdraw special trade privileges for Hong Kong. But even smaller-scale intervention could spark a knee-jerk exodus from the city’s financial markets, drag down property prices and prompt international companies to reconsider their presence in the territory, analysts say.

Hong Kong’s image as a cosmopolitan financial center would risk suffering irreparable damage, as would the concept of “one country, two systems” that has underpinned the city’s success since the 1997 handover.

China, meanwhile, would face potential economic sanctions from the U.S. and Europe, an emboldened pro-independence movement in Taiwan and increased financial risks for companies that rely on Hong Kong as a gateway to international investors -- all while grappling with Donald Trump’s trade war and the slowest economic expansion since foreign investment collapsed after Tiananmen.

The consequences would be so severe that most analysts interviewed by Bloomberg News described military intervention as a highly unlikely scenario -- a last resort that Chinese President Xi Jinping would only consider if protesters overwhelmed the local police force and put China’s control over the territory in doubt.

Demonstrators stand off against riot police on July 28.

“Beijing is unlikely to use the PLA to quell the protests until it feels it has exhausted all other levers at its disposal,” said Euan Graham, a former Asia analyst at the U.K.’s foreign office who’s now executive director of Asian research and outreach at Australia’s La Trobe University. “However much Xi Jinping fears chaos within China’s borders and that the use of the PLA is legitimate in his eyes, above all he does not want to have the stain of another Tiananmen massacre.”

A Hong Kong government spokesman said last week that local authorities have the “full capability” to maintain public order and that there’s no need to ask China’s military for assistance. Still, the specter of intervention could discourage protesters

 from breaching what China says are its three bottom lines: “No harm to national security, no challenge to the central government’s authority and no using Hong Kong as a base to undermine China.”

Hal Turner is claiming to have intel indicating coming Chinese action in Hong Kong

72 HOURS TO MARTIAL LAW IN HONG KONG

In stunning protests last month that brought as much as a quarter of Hong Kong’s 7.3 million people into the streets over the course of a single day, they defeated, at least temporarily, a proposed law that would allow extraditions to the mainland.

In doing so, they also dealt a setback to one of the insidious tactics in Beijing’s global agenda to undermine democratic values and the rule of law.

Intel Sources claim China will push back by Declaring martial law on August 4th 2019.

From Intel Sources:

• The Communist party will announce on August 4th that based upon the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Garrison Law and National security laws, the Hong Kong government has requested martial law be enforced by the PLA army stationed in Hong Kong.
• The safety of Hong Kong, public order. and the entry and exit of personnel shall all be under the unified direction of the martial law command.
• The martial law command will impose massive restrictions on the movement of people in and out of Hong Kong, essentially barring them from entering but allowing them to leave the territory freely. They will also clean up U.S. and European institutions based in Hong Kong and foreigners with U.S. and British passports.
• The Hong Kong police will make many arrests associated with the peaceful protests which have occurred since June 9, as troops stationed in Hong Kong impose martial law.

How will the U.S. and the world react? That remains to be seen.

How will this affect the massive amount of business done with and through Hong Kong? No one can say.

This is definitely a tinder box moment for the world.

It is not hard to see how China will be regarding this

Civil servants rally over extradition bill crisis

I recommend watching the discussion on this between 51' and 1'11"

The official Chinese response

A senior Chinese official urged the United States and some other Western countries on Thursday to stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs.

The US and some other countries have been mixing right and wrong, stirring up trouble during the recent violent incidents over the revision of an extradition amendment bill in Hong Kong, said Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.

They also arranged for senior officials to meet leading anti-China figures and supported the illegal activities of extreme, violent protesters with the aim of undermining the prosperity and security of Hong Kong, Yang said.

"We strongly demand the US and some other Western countries abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations, sincerely honor their hands-off promises on Hong Kong affairs and immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs in any form," he said.

Also on Thursday, the Hong Kong Police Force will step up enforcement efforts in handling violent protests, according to Lam Chi-wai, chairman of the Junior Police Officers' Association.

On behalf of over 20,000 front-line officers, Lam expressed confidence in their ability to safeguard law and order in the city.

In a group interview, Lam said extreme, violent acts by radical protesters, whom he called rioters, are likely to continue in coming weeks amid social disputes over the now-suspended extradition bill. He said police have sufficient equipment, personnel and capabilities to maintain the rule of law.

"We are 100 percent confident in safeguarding Hong Kong's law and order, protecting public security and resuming the city's stability as soon as possible," Lam said.

Anyone who participated in unauthorized assemblies broke the law, he said, adding that police would do their utmost to deter violent acts, including using more force. However, Lam stressed that only the minimum necessary force has been used when dispersing illegal protesters.

Hong Kong officers have acted with great restraint compared with law enforcement officers in other places, including the US, Italy and Russia. Even though police officers have been injured, not one bullet from a real gun has been fired against protesters, Lam said.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201908/02/WS5d433677a310cf3e355636a2.html