Chinese Hong Kong PLA video includes 'anti-riot' operations

Описание: As Hong Kong's political crisis simmers amidst heated protests, China's People's Liberation Army in Hong Kong released a video showing footage of "anti-riot" exercises and its top brass warned violence is "absolutely impermissible".

The three-minute video posted on the Hong Kong garrison's official Weibo social media account late on Wednesday (July 31) included footage of troops firing guns and rockets, and of light tanks, attack helicopters and missile launchers.

The PLA has remained in barracks since protests started in April, leaving Hong Kong's police force to deal with the massive and often violent protests in the Asian financial hub.

On Wednesday, 44 people were charged with rioting, the first time authorities have resorted to using the rioting charge.

In one sequence in the PLA video, titled "anti-riot drill footage", ranks of troops advance with shields and truncheons on protesters, firing rifles into the air. Tear gas and water cannons rained down on protesters, as armoured personnel carriers with battering rams raced forward, and troops laid barbed wire coils on the ground.

"All consequences are at your own risk," one soldier shouted in Cantonese, the main Chinese dialect in Hong Kong, during the video clip.

A red flag with the words "Warning. Stop charging or we use force" was also held aloft, similar to what Hong Kong police have long used during protests.

At the end of the clip, several protesters with their hands cuffed can be seen being taken away.

"We believe that the Hong Kong garrison of the People's Liberation Army will continue to become a stabilizing pillar for Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing in Beijing on Thursday (August 1) when asked about the video.

Hong Kong has been plunged into its biggest political crisis since the former British colony's return to Chinese rule in 1997 with a wave of protests against a now suspended extradition bill which would see people sent to mainland China for trial in Communist Party controlled courts.

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