HONG KONG — Hong Kong was bracing for further unrest on Sunday, a day after some Chinese troops left their barracks and staged a rare, tightly choreographed cleanup of streets that antigovernment protesters had filled with bricks during the week. The Chinese soldiers jogged out of their barracks on Saturday in Kowloon Tong, an upscale neighborhood, and cleared bricks from streets outside a university that had been swarmed by young demonstrators earlier in the week. The soldiers wore T-shirts and basketball jerseys, rather than military uniforms, and carried brooms instead of weapons. The P.L.A.’s propaganda stunt appeared designed to tap into a desire among many Hong Kong residents for a semblance of order after a particularly intense week of unrest. But it threatened to inflame tensions in a semiautonomous Chinese territory where many are deeply sensitive about what they see as Beijing’s growing influence over their lives.

Source: New York Times November 17, 2019 05:30 UTC