China Incursion Strongly Protested by Hong Kong

The local government has strongly protested to China after armed Chinese security personnel boarded a Hong Kong police vessel in the waters of this British crown colony Friday, threatening police officers with an assault rifle and pistols, a government spokesman said Saturday.

Friday’s incident was the fifth Chinese incursion into Hong Kong waters in a month and the most serious of its kind this year so far.

Protests were made to the New China News Agency--China’s de facto consulate--in Hong Kong, to the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing and to Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen during a meeting between Qian and British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd at the United Nations in New York, the spokesman said.

Government reports said two police vessels approached a fishing boat Friday after hearing that it had been intercepted in Hong Kong waters by Chinese security officials.

Three armed Chinese security agents had boarded the fishing boat, and as Hong Kong police officers began photographing their activities, two of the Chinese agents jumped onto the stern of one of the police vessels with an assault rifle and drawn pistols.

The agents held the police at gunpoint, seized their camera and threw their film into the sea. The incident ended when the Chinese agents returned to their speedboat and immediately headed back into Chinese waters.