Beijing's Aim Was To Boost The Police: Lau Siu-kai

The vice-president of Beijing's top think tank on Hong Kong said on Tuesday that the central government's intervention into the territory's ongoing crisis was aimed at boosting the morale of the police here.

Lau Siu-kai said that Beijing views the police as having an important role in keeping things under control and the central government still thinks the situation in Hong Kong is still controllable.

"We are not talking about territory-wide uprising reaching a big turmoil in Hong Kong and making it impossible for the government to maintain law and order," he said.

"We are only seeing a small number of violent people, going from one place to the other to challenge the police and create conflict," he said.

Lau reiterated that the chance of deploying the People's Liberation Army here is still very slim.

Lau told RTHK's Janice Wong that if the PLA moves in, it will be seen by the West as the end of One Country, Two Systems and that is not good for the prestige of Hong Kong or Beijing.