The Chinese military has said that it can be deployed to Hong Kong to maintain social order at the request of the city’s government, adding that Sunday’s siege of the mainland government’s liaison office in the city was intolerable.
Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s defence ministry, echoed Tuesday’s state media reports by saying the vandalism of the central government liaison office in Hong Kong – after weeks of mass protests against the city’s extradition bill – was a challenge to the bottom line of the principle of “one country, two systems”. “We are closely following the developments in Hong Kong, especially the violent attack against the central government liaison office by radicals on July 21,” Wu said at a briefing on Wednesday to introduce China’s new defence white paper.
