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If mainland China could justify military intervention due to HK's "armed rebellion" they would be happy to do it. HKs populace, even armed with best small arms
by ivalm 7y ago
If mainland China could justify military intervention due to HK's "armed rebellion" they would be happy to do it.
HKs populace, even armed with best small arms, would not pose any significant challenge to PLA.
Kind of like random Texan militias arent actually capable of resisting the US Marines.
With advent of modern military technologies there is absolutely no power symmetry between militias and professional armies.
- verttii 7y agoI agree. HK would need Singapore level armed forces to make the price tag high enough for the PLA. If even then.
- madengr 7y agoLike this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundy_standoff https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundy_standoff
- ivalm 7y agoThis is entirely the US government showing restraint. You do realize they could have easily killed everyone with 0 losses?
- madengr 7y agoZero losses? No.
- ivalm 7y agoLiterally the militia was holed up in a compound that could have been erased through missile strikes. No need for exchanging gun fire. That's the whole point. The military capabilities are very asymmetric.
- aswanson 7y agoYup. All they needed was the lat/long gps coordinates. A strike could have been controlled by a laptop on the other side of the country.
- cstejerean 7y agoKind of like random Iraqi and Afghani militias not being capable or resisting US marines. Oh wait. You’d be surprised what an armed population can do to resist a superior force when it comes to guerilla warfare.
- tluyben2 7y agoHK is very small; that would worry me. If you have ever been there... I walk everything there; I only take the MTR to cross Kowloon<>Central or the ferry Lamma<>Central. There is some beautiful nature but it is not vast; there is no massive landmass to hide out etc. We are talking 400.000+ km^2 vs less than 1500 km^2... You cannot 'retreat to the mountain hideouts'.
- ivalm 7y agoUS has very restricted rules of engagement (and good that they do). When Taliban/ISIS took land they didnt have this trouble pacifying because they were very bloody.
- simplecomplex 7y agoMaybe. Maybe not. The military being ordered to fire at their fellow citizens and ethnic group is very different than being told to kill people they don’t know on the other side of the world. Morale undermining command and control is a real issue in the military and a frequent issue historically.