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Comment by thedudeabides5 | Hacker News Reader

What would change in your assessment then were the mainland government to mobilize the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the next two months?

How likely do you think that is to occur?

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It should be noted that the mainland govt. doesn't need to mobilize troops. The 6000-strong combat-ready PLA Hong Kong Garrison is already in Hong Kong. The only way for them to enter is if the Hong Kong govt. gives permission or the violence/demonstrations escalates to a point where troops need to be sent in or if the garrison is provoked. Otherwise, it will likely be ignored like the 2014 Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong and no military will be sent in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Liberation_Army_Hon...

There is various law to govern that.

I doubt though that will happen.

Plainly, military force is not needed. If HK was ruined, so be it. That's what I read from mainland's sentiment.

This is my take on mainland sentiment also. If it comes down to HK being torn apart by some group, the CCP would rather that group be the HKers themselves than the PLA. HK is sufficiently culturally, politically and geographically insulated that don't have to worry about the unrest spreading over to the mainland. They’ll let them burn their own city down if that’s what they want - and if they do, the problem largely solves itself because an act like that would alienate most reasonable HKers from their cause.

What they won’t tolerate is an external force stepping in on behalf of the protestors because that would be a direct challenge to their sovereignty over the region. That’s the one and only scenario where the PLA has a possibility of being deployed.

The CCP has time on their side when it comes to dealing with this issue. Are the businesses in HK attempting to conduct their day to day operations able to say the same thing [1][2]?

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-29/hong-kong...

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-28/hong-kong...

How do you know all of this?

A light regiment can't do much about 1+ million people.

They will have to be reinforced from the mainland.

There were no stop to certainly demonstrative military maneuvers in Guangdong for the last 2 months. Very much an innuendo from PLA.

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