No Need For PLA To Step In, Says Elsie Leung

Former Justice Secretary Elsie Leung has poured cold water on suggestions that the government might need help from the People's Liberation Army to handle the anti-extradition protests.

The protests have entered their eleventh week, with no sign of abating, but Leung said on Sunday that it's not yet a national security issue.

Speaking on a radio programme, she noted that in the absence of armed protesters advocating independence, the current situation doesn't fit the criteria under which Beijing would declare a state of emergency.

She cited article 18 of the Basic Law which stipulates that the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress would declare a state of emergency because of a "state of war or, by reason of turmoil within the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region which endangers national unity or security and is beyond the control of the government of the Region."

"I don't think we have come to such a stage that the (protest) action would actually affect the unity of the country or the national security to such an extent that the National People's Congress Standing Committee would need to make any order to declare that this is a state of emergency," Leung said.

Leung was commenting after television footage appeared to show Shenzhen police in a stadium practising crowd control.