China Ramps Up Talk of Army Intervention Amid Hong Kong Violence
- Protests have turned into a ‘color revolution,’ Xinhua says
- Armed intervention still seen as ‘last resort,’ analyst says
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Chinese state media gave one of its strongest warnings yet of a possible military intervention in Hong Kong, even though analysts said such a move remained a last resort.
The unsigned commentary from the official Xinhua News Agency on Sunday came after the 12th straight weekend of unrest in Asia’s main financial hub, with violent clashes that saw demonstrators hurl petrol bombs and police deploy water cannons and tear gas. The piece didn’t say whether Chinese authorities had reached any decision to act or when, only that they had the legal mechanisms needed to deploy forces in the special administrative region.