Beijing, July 24 (TIWN) China on Wednesday said it can deploy military to Hong Kong at the request of the city's government to maintain law and order after weeks of pro-democracy protests.

Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s defence ministry, echoed Tuesday’s state media reports by saying the vandalism of the central government liaison office in Hong Kong – after weeks of mass protests against the city’s extradition bill – was a challenge to the bottom line of the principle of “one country, two systems”. “We are closely following the developments in Hong Kong, especially the violent attack against the central government liaison office by radicals on July 21,” Wu said at a briefing on Wednesday to introduce China’s new defence white paper. “Some behaviour of the radical protesters is challenging the authority of the central government and the bottom line of one country, two systems. This is intolerable.”