antiterror13
Brigadier
Come on guys, surely you all remember the very explicit threats Taiwan made, when Chen was in power and tensions were high, about reducing HK and Shanghai to ruin if the PRC ever tried to take Taiwan back?
They even made plans to try and bomb the Three Gorges Damn.
HK has no military significance other than the actual units the PLA stations there, which are entirely for defensive purposes anyways, but it is a critically important economic and financial centre for China, and as such, would be well worth protecting, especially since it's location makes it very vulnerable and there would be very little warning or chances to mount an effective intercept if someone who wanted to attack China selected it as one of the first places to attack.
In addition, it's close proximity to the manufacturing hubs and shipyards of the Pearl River Delta would also allow long range SAMs like HQ9s to provide cover for those areas as well, and you will get a little extra range and warning time with HQ9s in HK rather than on the mainland. That could be why the HQ9s are still in HK even though tensions with Taiwan has eased significantly lately.
Although saying that, has anyone spotted HQ9s in or around HK recently? You would think that with somewhere as densely populated and developed as HK, someone would have spotted them at some point or know where they are normally based. Are we 100% sure the HQ9s are still there?
HQ-9 range is more than 200km, so really it doesn't need to be stationed in HK to protect HK