Hong Kong police can handle Occupy Central, says Justice Secretary

Hong Kong police alone can handle any incident that could potentially damage the city's law and order, Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung said yesterday.

Yuen's remarks came one day after the former director of Xinhua's Hong Kong branch, Zhou Nan, said "anti-China forces" were using the Occupy Central movement to try to seize control of Hong Kong's administration and that the PLA would step in if riots were to occur in the city.

"If necessary, I believe the police force is capable of handling any activities that would damage the law and order," Yuen said, reiterating a long-standing government position, while declining to make any specific comment on Zhou's remarks.

"From a legal standpoint, civil disobedience must involve a breach of law; it has always been the government's stance that we do not wish to see any unlawful act being taken," Yuen said when asked if Occupy Central would constitute "subversion of the state".

He advised those who were considering taking part to think again before joining Occupy Central, a civil disobedience movement that has vowed to bring the city's commercial hub to a standstill if the government fails to come up with a satisfactory plan to implement universal suffrage for the 2017 chief executive election.

Civil disobedience would have a "significant impact" on Hong Kong, Yuen said.