GatewayRedbirds.com

As protesters continue to block Hong Kong International Airport, the editor of Chinese state media tabloid Global Times has again warned of a possible military crackdown.

Editor Hu Xijin said on his official Twitter account that it would be best if "Hong Kong can restore order by itself."

"(But) if the development of the situation suggests there is no such hope, Beijing's intervention will be inevitable," he said.

"It's a hard choice, but once it becomes the decision, it will be a firm one"

Beneath his tweet, he posted pictures of Chinese armored personnel carriers.

Large numbers of Chinese paramilitary forces have been filmed assembling just 30km (18.6 miles) from Hong Kong in the city of Shenzhen, as the UN warned Beijing to exercise restraint in its response to growing unrest in the territory.

Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday the city had been placed on a “path of no return” after 10 weeks of increasingly disruptive protests.

Flights at the international airport in Hong Kong were cancelled for a second day, as thousands of demonstrators gathered in the departure hall at the main terminal despite the implementation of increased security measures designed to keep them out.

Chinese state media described the build-up of armed police units, shown in videos gathering at an arena called the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre, as preparations for “apparent large-scale exercises”. Alexandre Krauss, a policy advisor for the EU’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, called the videos a sign that “something extraordinarily bad is about to happen”.

Similar exercises on 6 August featured up to 12,000 troops, according to the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper, and featured armoured personnel carriers, helicopters and amphibious vehicles.

The newspaper described the People’s Armed Police forces as being mandated by Chinese law for “dealing with rebellions, riots, serious violent and illegal incidents, terrorist attacks and other social security incidents”.

Mr Tsang said the shift in China’s perception of the protests, rather than its troop movements, was the critical issue. “Beijing now sees events in Hong Kong as a ‘colour revolution’… part of an American-led global conspiracy which aims ultimately at regime change in China,” he said. “This is totally intolerable to Xi Jinping.”

From that second article:


This is so odd to me. This is the way that Putin thinks, also. It's so strange to me that powerful people like Xi and Putin could look at America and think "There they go again trying to spread Democracy via mass movements!" We stomp out this kind of activity better than anyone. Also: Yes, our hippy leader President Trump is covertly leading a "colour revolution". That's totally what's happening.

Our 'colour revolution' support isn't for democracy, it's the same reason Putin is undermining our elections - to cause instability.

By now we should all be cured of seeing America as some kind of city on a hill spreading goodness throughout the world. We are no different than any other powerful empire. Divide and conquer, exploit what we can and repress anything that threatens our financial or military interests.

And yes, those protesters are dead people walking. And many of them know it but are doing it anyway. God bless them.

It's extremely dangerous and authoritarian to assume that all protests are just a psy op by a large, foreign enemy. I guess I just don't think the USA had much to do with this one. It seems pretty organic.

It's extremely dangerous and authoritarian to assume that all protests are just a psy op by a large, foreign enemy. I guess I just don't think the USA had much to do with this one. It seems pretty organic.

Agree. A formerly democratic city is pushing back against authoritarianism. Pretty understandable.