In the hours of darkness of 28 August, a large Chinese cargo ship disgorged unknown amounts of troops and military equipment at Stonecutters Island Naval Base in Hong Kong. The mysterious appearance of the ship comes against a background of rumours over whether the Chinese government will send People’s Liberation Army (PLA) or People’s Armed Police (PAP) troops on to Hong Kong streets to subdue its unruly citizens.
The ship in question, Chang Da Long, is a 140.5m-long vehicle carrier. It arrived at Stonecutters Island at 17:36 on 28 August and, after unloading its cargo, departed by 23:19. In total, the 19,864t vessel was berthed at the PLA naval base for 5.5h.
Its presence in Hong Kong was ostensibly part of the annual rotation of troops and equipment of the PLA Hong Kong Garrison, something that occurs every year on 28 August. It is normal for night-time road convoys containing tactical and armoured vehicles to cross over the border from Shenzhen, but the presence of a conscripted civilian cargo vessel has never been observed before by Shephard.
What was the vessel carrying and why was its arrival kept so secretive?
For example, the PLA refused to notify the Hong Kong’s Marine Department of the ship’s arrival, nor did any harbour pilot board the vehicle carrier.
Ship tracking reveals that Chang Da Long had sailed from Shekou in nearby Shenzhen immediately prior to its brief voyage to Hong Kong. Shekou is close to where a large PAP formation had recently conducted anti-riot drills in a sports stadium. The ship presumably picked up equipment and troops at Shekou, but it is entirely unclear what and how much.
Even more concerning is the fact that Chang Da Long had turned off its automatic identification system before arriving in Shekou, although it is known to have steamed from a southwest direction.
Why did the PLA want to keep its prior route a secret? Numerous military units are stationed southwest of Hong Kong, including two brigades of the PLA Navy Marine Corps in Zhanjiang.
CCTV released a video clip about the 22nd troop rotation of the Hong Kong Garrison, and it included brief images of Chang Da Long in Hong Kong. It showed hundreds of regular PLA troops disembarking on foot, with military vehicles visible aboard one of the ship’s decks. The video clip later shows Dongfeng EQ2050 4x4 tactical vehicles driving along the naval base quay.
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While all this was going on, long road convoys of PLA vehicles drove into Hong Kong from Huanggang Port in Shenzhen. Vehicles included EQ1050 4x4 trucks and Type 92B 6x6 armoured personnel carriers (APCs), though all this equipment is already familiar to the garrison.
Unfortunately, the South China Morning Post incorrectly reported that water cannon-armed WJ-03B 6x6 APCs of the PAP were sent to the garrison via convoy. These latter vehicles look similar to the Type 92B, but they possess a different camouflage pattern and the reporter was misled by the fact that their turret-mounted cannons were removed for the road movement ...
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/hong-kong-protests-latest-updates-190831101706243.html
