I am perhaps a bit more optimistic about the situation than some.
I really believe that this wave of popular protest has peaked and that the big mass rallies of a million plus, which we saw a few months ago are unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.
Now the crowds are just "hundreds" when before it was thousands or even tens of thousands.
I see the increase in violence and the increasingly sensationalist claims/rhetoric from the protestors as signs of desperation.
I remember (just) being a teenager, I remember fully well, going places and taking part in things, simply because they sounded like fun and because there would be girls there.
Often I could not have cared less about whatever cause the event was supposed to be supporting.
I am also old enough to remember living through the cold war.
I recall clearly the various scenarios in which strategists would play out the start of possible WW3 or even the more limited scenarios in which the SU would try to expand into smaller areas of Western Europe.
These were always based on the Salami slicing principle, taking a small action and seeing how the opposition reacted before taking the next small slice.
Now I am not saying that Cold War Europe and Hong Kong are directly comparable (they are not), but it does give a useful insight into strategy.
I would say that the chance of the PLA itself being deployed against civilians is so remote as to be possible to be fully discounted.
It is of course the PAP that have been moved to the Shenzhen border and these that would cross into HKSAR if the local police needed further assistance.
Even here, the salami slicing principle suggests that a full deployment against the rioters is highly unlikely.
My guess is that the PAP would deploy to protect critical/national level infrastructure (ie Lantou Airport, the mainline railways, Power stations etc) and central government buildings etc, freeing up local police officers to deal with the sharp end.
Beyond this though are real and legitimate gripes in the city. Soaring house prices, rents and the cost of living at the forefront. I noticed myself this year that my money went nowhere near as far as it had in previous visits. If the LC start to seriously address some of these problems, then a lot of the residual heat that the protest movement has proved so good at harvesting will be extinguished.
