11th August 2019 – (Hong Kong) Jean-Pierre Cabestan, Professor and Head, Department of Government and International Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University exposed in an article in the Le Figaro, French daily dated 5 August 2019 that Beijing government has covertly added 2,000 mainland Chinese policemen into the Hong Kong police.
A local media reporter from Stand News allegedly overheard a police officer commending his colleague in Chinese, ‘Partner, thanks for the hard work’ while patting on his back after police officers stormed into King Lam Estate in Tseung Kwan O to arrest a protester yesterday.
“On paper, the police in Hong Kong follow Carrie Lam’s orders, but in reality, they listen to instructions from Beijing via the liaison office. Beijing has secretly added to the Hong Kong police force, which is 30,000-strong, a number of policemen who speak Cantonese like Hong Kong from the neighbouring Guangdong province, so that they can better integrate. That is what my sources told me and it is a pretty serious development. In fact, Carrie Lam does not have a free hand on domestic security issues. “
‘I would add that I don’t know the exact number of mainland Chinese police personnel deployed in HK although more recent sources have indicated that it could be around 2,000.’ said by the French professor on his Facebook.
Jean-Pierre Cabestan is Professor and Head, Department of Government and International Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. He is also Director General of the European Union Academic Programme in Hong Kong as well as associate researcher at the Asia Centre, Paris and at the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China in Hong Kong.