China flaunts military muscle as it seeks to quell Hong Kong's ‘colour revolution’

Beijing's rhetoric escalating alongside video of troop carriers at border, yet experts say deployment a last resort

The messages from Beijing to protesters in Hong Kong are increasingly ominous. First there was propaganda footage of Chinese soldiers garrisoned in Hong Kong drilling for intense urban fighting that looked more like a civil war than search and rescue or crowd control.

Now footage has emerged of armoured paramilitary vehicles massing across the border. Two months into demonstrations sparked by a controversial extradition law, official rhetoric from Beijing has escalated too. Authorities recently denounced protests as "terrorist acts", promised an "iron fist" response and, perhaps most alarmingly, described the movement as a "colour revolution".