China’s military garrison in Hong Kong released two new videos that display the nation’s military might as the country passed a national security law targeting Hong Kong.
The videos were posted by PLA Daily, the news publication for China’s military, on the social media site Sina Weibo over the past couple of days. The first video shows snipers practicing at a range. According to the South China Morning Post, the PLA Daily said the video was filmed somewhere in Hong Kong but did not specify exactly where or when.
Newsweek reported on Tuesday that the second video showed the People’s Liberation Army conducting land, sea, and air drills. The video shows military personnel chasing down and detaining suspects.
Due to the timing of the clips, some have viewed them as a warning to those in Hong Kong who oppose Chinese intervention.
Joshua Wong, who stepped down from his position as secretary-general of the pro-democracy Hong Kong group Demosisto, implied that the video was a warning to protesters. In a Facebook post roughly translated to English, Wong wrote: “Even in the road to fight, I am grateful that everyone has not retreated, I am very grateful. However, when the national security laws are under the situation, the PLA demonstrates sniping ‘beheading’ and carried out democratic resistance in Hong Kong, worrying about life and safety is no longer nonsense.”
“The timing of the release of the video cannot be uncalculated. It is a clear warning to separatists both in Hong Kong and Taiwan,” Macau-based military analyst Antony Wong Dong said of the first video. “It may also signal a change in the tactics of the PLA. Hong Kong is a densely populated place. The use of a task force or snipers could be more effective than deploying a whole battalion, especially in a targeted elimination or decapitation strike.”
However, Hui Ching, research director of the policy think tank Hong Kong Zhi Ming Institute, warned people against “over interpretation” of the video, saying: “The message in the video could be that the PLA wants to show off its ability to train elite snipers and make quality sniper rifles. China has increased its spending on upgrading its army over the past decade.”
China has used coded video messages in the past to quell the people of Hong Kong. In 2019, protests in the region reached a boiling point over an extradition bill that would have allowed residents of Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China for trial. China’s PLA released a video during that time depicting riot police firing into a crowd of protesters. According to the South China Morning Post, one officer shouted a warning to protesters in Cantonese, which is the language of the people of Hong Kong.
The new security law allows sweeping new criminal penalties for vague crimes such as subversion, separatism, or collusion with foreign entities. It also gives China the ability to set up its own security force in the region to enforce its new rules.
