Soldiers from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) briefly left their Hong Kong barracks on Saturday to help the clean-up after a week of disruption caused by pro-democracy protests, a rare and highly symbolic troop movement unsolicited by the city’s embattled government.

The action saw scores of soldiers from the garrison, which is confined to the barracks under Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, with crewcuts and identical gym kits, conduct a lightning-quick removal of bricks and debris near their base.

Confirming the brief deployment on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, the PLA said it acted to open a debris-strewn road outside their Kowloon Tong barracks to traffic, winning “applause from residents” in the process.

The last time soldiers assisted in the city was in 2018 to clean up after a typhoon.

A spokesman for Hong Kong’s embattled government said the troop movement had not been requested by city authorities, but was instead a “voluntary community activity initiated by themselves.”

Their appearance on Hong Kong’s streets raised tensions in a city rocked by a week of intensified violence and chaos.

At about 4:20 p.m. on Saturday, dozens of PLA officers and men from the Hong Kong garrison appeared on Kowloon streets to help the residents clean up debris left by rioters.

As a widespread video clip shows, one middle-aged man, apparently the commander of the group, was surrounded by certain local media outlets when he organized the cleaning jobs.

One of the questions, obviously misleading, goes like this: “Do you worry that by suddenly appearing on the streets you might leave a not-so-good impression to Hong Kong residents?”

The commander answered with confidence: “The applause from the Hong Kong residents best shows our impression!”

Yet the move, which serves public interest in Hong Kong, has met challenges and doubts from certain Western media outlets. Some even unanimously quoted a few local legislators in saying they were “upset.”

Western media, however, was sparse in reporting how the local residents showed their welcome to the PLA men with warm applause.

In a video, the military men were seen wearing T-shirts, not uniforms, while the commander clearly said that they came out “voluntarily.”

Just as Athena Kung CY, senior counsel registered at the Hong Kong Bar Association, said in an interview with local broadcast outfit Orange News, the PLA men were not wearing uniforms and they were rendering voluntary services, which is not against the Basic Law of Hong Kong SAR.

Kung also said that it is in accordance with HK’s general interests if the members of the PLA garrison that are not on duty voluntarily clean debris.

In October 2018, when typhoon “Mangkhut” caused heavy losses to Hong Kong, PLA soldiers were seen clearing the trees that were uprooted in a park. Some local legislators then raised doubts, which were clearly answered by John Lee Ka-chiu, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Secretary for Security, saying that it was a voluntary public-interest deed, not disaster relief, and thus does not need an invitation from the HKSAR government.

Those soldiers dismantled road barricades, removed bricks at Renfre Road in front of PLA’s Kowloon East Barracks. After the officers cleaned up the mess and returned to the barracks, some reporters still gathered outside, while dozens of riot police were a few hundred meters away from the garrison, according to Global Times reporters.

Sources close to the PLA told the Global Times that there is no need to read too much into the clean-up efforts by the soldiers as such activities outside the camp only require the permission of their commander instead of higher-level command.

The efforts took place during the Saturday break of the PLA.

“Such details show the Hong Kong PLA Garrison does not want to draw extra attention and wants to lower the sensitivity associated with their PLA Hong Kong Garrison identity,” the newspaper’s source said.

The efforts on Saturday cannot be interpreted as any hint of what the PLA Hong Kong Garrison will or will not do next, the source explained.

Hong Kong has been engulfed in escalated violence as rioters blocked roads, paralyzed traffic, threw Molotov cocktails and attacked ordinary people who disagree with them.

“All of us feel happy and touched today. We felt painful in the past few days seeing the situation worsened, but the PLA Garrison made us relieved,” said Chen Qingzhen, a local resident.

“I hope they can come out often these days in this perfect way of cleaning trashes,” she said.

The clean-up work released a signal that the PLA troops stationed in Hong Kong have a mission to restore the social order of the city, Li Xiaobing, an expert on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, from Nankai University in Tianjin, told the Global Times.

“It was reasonable and legal, because these roadblocks not only affected the lives of ordinary people, but also affected traffic around the military camp,” he said, noting that it also fully demonstrates that the officers care for the people of Hong Kong and play an active role in strengthening people’s confidence in the city’s future.