Singapore military vehicles still detained, says Hong Kong customs
The remarks counter media reports of the seized armoured infantry carriers being returned to island nation
The department made the rebuttal after Apple Daily said in a report that the vehicles, which had been detained in the outdoor storage yard of a Tuen Mun storage facility for weeks, were missing since Monday.
The department stressed that the vehicles were still being kept in Hong Kong.
Video explainer: What’s going on with the Singaporean military vehicles seized in Hong Kong
“As the case is still under investigation, no further information is available. The suspected controlled items are still kept at a customs storage place in Tuen Mun. They have been stored indoors since December 6,” a spokesman said.
At a daily press briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang would only say that the Hong Kong government is handling the incident in accordance with relevant laws.
The vehicles, which were not “specifically” declared in the cargo manifest, had been used in a military exercise in Taiwan.
It was Hong Kong’s biggest seizure of “strategic commodities” in two decades.
In a Facebook post, titled “2016 – A Look Back”, Ng described it as “a low point from the defence perspective”.
“The [Singapore armed forces] will learn from this episode and has already changed its practices to better protect our assets,” Ng said in the post, without revealing details.
“But all of us are of course upset that the (vehicles), our property, have not been returned to Singapore.”
In November, Singapore reassured China that it “will not deviate” from the one-China principle while making it clear the city state hopes to exercise its “full rights of recovery” available.
The remarks by Singapore’s foreign affairs minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and defence minister Ng came a day after China’s foreign ministry said it had lodged a diplomatic protest to Singapore over the incident, demanding the Lion City to strictly abide by the one-China principle.
Additional reporting by Catherine Wong