CHINA-HONGKONG: PLA HONGKONG GARRISON EXERCISES
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The South China Morning Post quoted (December 25, 2019) that China’s state-owned CCTV as releasing a video on Christmas Eve of Hong Kong’s PLA garrison conducting live-fire sea drills in the South China Sea. 1000 soldiers participated in the drills, which included a Type 056 corvette Qinzhou, a transport vessel and two Type 074 landing boats. Asia Times said the drills included a search and rescue mission as well as practice for intercepting suspicious vessels. To practice seizing control and conducting searches, armed commandos rappelled down from a helicopter. In a separate exercise, marines reportedly made landfall, established beachheads and took over a port in an unspecified location in the city. Analysts described the drills as intended to send a warning to radical protestors in Hongkong.
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