‘Let the police do their job’: Hong Kong stock exchange chief cautions against military intervention
- PLA’s role is to protect national sovereignty and ‘one country, two systems’ should be safeguarded, Charles Li says
The head of the Hong Kong stock exchange has cautioned against Chinese military intervention in Hong Kong, saying it is not up to the People’s Liberation Army to do the police’s job.
Addressing a group of business and professional executives on Thursday, HKEX chief executive Charles Li Xiaojia said the PLA was “supposed to be here to ... point [at] outside enemies. It’s not supposed to help Hong Kong to deal with our own problems.”
Li’s comments come amid concerns that PLA troops could be mobilised to help maintain order in the city, after weeks of protests.
He told a gathering organised by the Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute that the principle of “one country, two systems” – under which the city retains its own political, legal, economic and financial systems – should be safeguarded and the PLA’s purpose was to protect national sovereignty.
“The PLA is in Hong Kong in the garrison to protect national sovereignty, to protect national territorial integrity, integration and integrity of the People’s Republic of China,” Li said.
