China Warns Hong Kong It Will Intervene if Situation Deteriorates
A senior Chinese official in charge of Hong Kong affairs warned that Beijing would intervene if the local government proved unable to contain the violent protests, the most explicit threat of intervention to date from the central government.
At a meeting with Hong Kong representatives in the nearby city of Shenzhen on Wednesday, the official, Zhang Xiaoming, issued a dire assessment of the situation in the territory after more than two months of protests. He called the situation the most severe since China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997.
“If the situation worsens further, and there is turmoil that the Hong Kong government is unable to control, the central government absolutely will not just watch without doing anything,” Mr. Zhang, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of China’s State Council, said in remarks carried by official state media....
Larry Pan | 7/4/2009
