Chinese border defence corps turns private Hong Kong land into 21,000 sq ft garden without owners’ knowledge
- Investigation reveals that officers have been on land for past six years, without permission from owners or government
- Border defence force built bridge linking city to mainland, but there’s no checkpoint and officers cross back and forth at will
Chinese border defence officers have turned a tract of private land in Hong Kong into a 21,000 sq ft garden without the knowledge of the owners or the government, a report by FactWire News Agency claims.
The land, which has been occupied by members of the Guangdong Border Defence Corps, lies next to the Sha Tau Kok River in Sha Tau Kok, in the New Territories, and borders the Yantian District of Shenzhen in mainland China. It is situated in what is deemed to be a restricted area by the Hong Kong government, and is about 900 metres northwest of the Sha Tau Kok Immigration Control Point.
According to the FactWire investigation, the land sits alongside the garrison for the 13th company of the corps’ 6th Detachment, and has been connected to the mainland by a newly constructed bridge.
The Post has verified through a search of government records that the land is privately owned by two Hong Kong residents. We also found a picture from the state-owned Xinhua News Agency in 2015, which shows mainland officers inspecting the garden.
Land records show the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border running through the middle of the bridge, although pictures of the site do not show any immigration checkpoint, while officers in uniform have repeatedly been seen crossing back and forth between the garrison and the garden.