Hong Kong denies Beijing role in seizure of Singaporean troop carriers
Customs chief says the enforcement action was based on Hong Kong law and also claims Singapore’s government was never a target for investigation
He also claimed on Wednesday that the Singapore government had never been a target for investigation since the Terrex armoured troop carriers were intercepted at Kwai Chung Container Terminals on November 23 on their way home from Taiwan.
Singapore also kept it bilateral yesterday, with Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen saying it reflected the “good and friendly relations” between the city state and Hong Kong. Beijing said it hoped Singapore had “learned a lesson” and urged it to respect the one-China policy.
A day after Hong Kong agreed to return the armoured vehicles – which Singapore is expecting by February 11, the last day of the Lunar New Year celebrations – Commissioner of Customs and Excise Roy Tang Yun-kwong shed some light on the dispute after two months of silence.
The seizure of the vehicles in transit on a container ship after a military exercise in Taiwan was widely seen as a warning from Beijing over military ties between Singapore and the island, which China considers a renegade province. Hong Kong has stuck to the official explanation that it took action over a suspected breach of laws governing the import, export and transshipment of strategic commodities.