Reports from Hongkong state that China rotated troops in its People’s Liberation Army garrison in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on August 28, days before protesters planned to hold a march calling for full democracy for the HKSAR. Chinese state media described the troop movement in the early hours as routine. Troops were also rotated in neighboring Macau, a former Portuguese colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1999. The South China Morning Post said the troops were deployed in the early hours of the morning at various points in the HKSAR including entry points. China’s state mouthpiece Xinhua said the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) garrison in the territory will make even greater contributions to maintaining Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability. Along with the People’s Daily it said the military had completed a routine troop rotation of air, land, and maritime forces. Both publications released pictures and footage of armoured personnel carriers moving in convoy in Hong Kong before dawn, their lights flashing. There are an estimated 8,000 and 10,000 troops in the Hong Kong garrison split between bases in southern China and a network of former British army barracks in Hong Kong. Meanwhile on August 29, Police banned protests planned for August 31, by those behind Hong Kong’s biggest demonstrations in an unprecedented move slammed by the organisers who accused the government of pushing the city “into the abyss”.

A report in the official Global Times (August 28) disclosed that Shenzhen had mobilised a total of 240,000 Shenzhen residents to work as volunteer police to prevent terrorism and violent crimes as neighboring Hong Kong has been vandalized by violent protests for more than two months.

(Comment: The mass protests by Hongkong residents has continued now for 12 consecutive weekends with shots being fired for the first time on Sunday, August 25. The Chinese authorities and Chinese President Xi Jinping are unlikely to allow protests to continue and mar China's National Day on October 1.)