About 30 Chinese military vehicles - including two armored vehicles designed for anti-terrorism activities - were spotted by passersby along a busy Hong Kong intersection on Thursday morning.

The vehicles each bore a number plate beginning with “ZG” (standing for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Garrison in Hong Kong) and were pictured traveling along Cox’s Road and Jordan Road in Jordan at around 1am. The location is only a few hundred meters away from the PLA’s Gun Club Hill Barracks.

The sighting of the Chinese army on Hong Kong streets comes at a particularly sensitive time as Beijing forges ahead with the looming national security law to be enacted in the city. Its timing is also just before the July 1 anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule, which has traditionally been marked with mass anti-government rallies every year since 2003.

Two of the vehicles had the serial numbers of TJ814 and TJ818, and were identified as CSK-141 Dongfeng Menshi armored vehicles developed by mainland China for the purposes of combatting terrorism, according to an arms expert that spoke to the Apple Daily.

The expert said the armored vehicles were advanced models, and the TJ814 car was displayed at the 2015 China Victory Day parade in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan in World War II.

He said a hexagonal metallic device and several antennas were installed on top of the TJ814 vehicle cabin, adding that the hexagonal device resembled the sonic cannons equipped on anti-riot Unimog armored vehicles deployed by Hong Kong police in the siege of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University last November. The antennas can emit sonic waves to jam nearby electronic communications devices nearby such as mobile phones, the expert said.

According to news blog Daily Record Hong Kong, its reporter’s smartphone stopped functioning when he attempted to record the vehicles. When he switched to airplane mode, the smartphone displayed a memory card error, followed by a camera error. Other witnesses also claimed their smartphones had failed to function when attempting to capture the front of the armored vehicles, and only managed to take pictures of the sides and rear when it passed by.

Developed in 2015, the CSK-141 Dongfeng Menshi can carry up to nine soldiers. Its turret can be mounted with a 12.7mm machine gun or a 35mm grenade launcher. The vehicle’s armor can withstand the thrust of bullets fired by AK-47 semi-automatic rifles.

Democratic Party legislator James To said the movements of the PLA cars were “abnormal” and speculated that mainland Chinese authorities may be flexing their muscles to deter Hongkongers at this sensitive time.
An Apple Daily reporter yesterday visited the streets near the Barracks but no military vehicles were spotted. The PLA Hong Kong Garrison has been contacted for comment.

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