Just Saying | Relax, there’s no need to panic about uniformed Chinese soldiers on Hong Kong streets
Yonden Lhatoo says it will be a long time before the city can stomach the idea of PLA soldiers in uniform on the streets, even if their conduct so far has been exemplary and all the paranoia about them has proven to be misplaced
When I first started as a rookie reporter in Hong Kong, I was assigned to the British garrison beat as it was drawing down in preparation for the city’s historic handover of sovereignty to China in 1997.
It was an interesting time as the public relations machine of the colonial military was in overdrive to ensure we were left behind with fond memories.
My friendly neighbourhood soldiers and their spin doctors went out of their way to both educate and entertain me. They took me along on land and sea operations to chase after illegal immigrants and intercept smugglers, flew me on a helicopter to a drug rehabilitation centre they were helping out with on a remote island accessible only by air, and let me climb into a visiting submarine, to name a few memorable excursions.
Like so many Hongkongers, I wasn’t sure what to expect when the British left and the first batch of People’s Liberation Army troops entered the city. I still vividly recall them standing ramrod stiff in the backs of their trucks, ignoring the pouring rain, as they swept into Hong Kong on the night of June 30.
A sense of trepidation hung in the air, thanks to all the media reports reminding everyone this was the same military force used against its own people to crush the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
