The Hong Kong government handed over a harborfront site in Central to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on Tuesday, which will be used as its military dock.

From 7am, the Central Military Dock has been marked as a military restricted zone, with the public barred from entering. The 150-meter-long dock is now exclusively used and managed by the PLA’s Hong Kong garrison.

Hong Kong and PLA officials signed documents during a closed-door ceremony at Hong Kong Government Headquarters in Admiralty to mark the handover on Tuesday. The government had not notified the press prior to the ceremony and only issued a press release and photos afterwards.

At the ceremony, Chief Executive Carrie Lam warned that no one should enter the dock without authorization as defense was of utmost importance to the country, and must be fully safeguarded.

The PLA had agreed to consider opening a non-restricted area of the dock to the public on a discretionary basis after taking her government’s recommendation, Lam said. She described the move as a demonstration of care for Hongkongers by the garrison.

“Its future opening arrangements are subject to the management decision of the Hong Kong garrison having regard to its defense operations,” Lam added. “The HKSAR Government respects the Hong Kong garrison’s decision and will provide support when needed.”

The government’s plan to give the site to the PLA was announced in April last year and came into effect two months later. The official handover was postponed due to delays in reclamation works in the area, Lam said.

The dock will be a key base and anchorage facility for the PLA fleet, said the PLA’s Hong Kong garrison spokesperson Han You. The garrison would officially start using the dock after completing preparation works, Han said.

The decision to give the Victoria Harbor-facing site - a favorite location for jogging, walking and other leisure among Hongkongers - to the PLA has been hugely unpopular. In a 2003 public consultation, only 10 out of 19,000 opinions submitted to the Town Planning Board were in support of giving the site to the PLA.

The restricted military area would disrupt the continuity of the harbourfront promenade and it remained unclear whether the PLA would open the pier to Hongkongers as promised, according to Katty Law, who is a member of a harborfront concern group opposed to handing the site to the PLA.

“The Central Harborfront is a core area. The public could originally walk along continuously. Now they have to go the long way round,” Law said.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play