BEIJING yesterday appeared to backtrack on suggestions it will station the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Hong Kong's urban areas after 1997.
China's top official on Hong Kong affairs, Lu Ping, insisted nothing had been decided and dismissed a senior PLA official's statement that troops will be stationed in downtown Hong Kong as ''hypothetical''.
On a tour of the Three Gorges with nine Hong Kong affairs advisers, the Director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) urged local people to ''put their hearts at ease'' on the issue.
Fears had risen after Xu Huizi, PLA deputy chief-of-staff and representative on the Preliminary Working Committee (PWC) preparing for 1997, said troops would be stationed in Hong Kong's urban and rural areas.
Mr Lu yesterday sought to brush that aside: ''No decision has been made. What he said is hypothetical.'' He said no decision had been made on the size or location of the future garrison, and there was no need to rush into one, since negotiations on military land were still taking place in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group.
But he denied reports of a rift between his office and the PLA. ''We hold the same view,'' Mr Lu said.
Speaking in Hong Kong yesterday, PWC law and order panel co-convener Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai insisted there was no contradiction between the two official's comments.