City Beat | PLA road-clearing action may be both community service and last wake-up call for Hong Kong government
- Sight of troops helping to clear roadblocks was bound to draw mixed response in Hong Kong
- No denying the symbolic implications behind this surprise episode at such a sensitive time in a city overrun by chaos
It was a relatively quiet Saturday afternoon until the usually closed and guarded gate of PLA’s Hong Kong Garrison barracks in Kowloon Tong suddenly swung open and around 50 Chinese soldiers trooped out.
Local residents and reporters gathered outside the Baptist University campus nearby, which had been occupied earlier by black-clad radicals who had blocked the surrounding roads, watched in surprise as the soldiers were ordered by a middle-aged man apparently in charge to clear the debris and roadblocks.
It marked a dramatic turn of events amid the escalating social unrest that had turned the city upside down last week, with radicals paralysing traffic and transforming university campuses into battle grounds to fight off police.
Speculation had been rife that Beijing might finally resort to drastic action and deploy the People’s Liberation Army.
