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Conclusion and recommendation
(new second sentence)
The military risk is primarily that there could be a rapid breakdown in law and order which would be beyond the capacity of the RHKP to deal with. The chances of that are slight, and would not be increased by withdrawal of the garrison to a symbolic level. But if these circumstances arose, a weak garrison would make Chinese intervention more likely. The political risk relates to Chinese perceptions and possibly perceptions among Hong Kong people.
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opd(K).para
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