HONG KONG: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Hong Kong Thursday (Jun 30) to attend celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain to China.
Xi travelled into the city by high-speed train, the first time he has left mainland China since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, he was greeted at the station by schoolchildren waving flags and bouquets of flowers, as well as lion dancers and select accredited media.
According to Chinese state media, Xi said in a speech that Hong Kong will have a good future if it does not waiver on the One Country Two Systems principle, which has “strong vitality”.
Hong Kong had been “reborn of fire”, he said.
“After the storms, Hong Kong has been reborn of fire and emerged with robust vitality … The facts have proved that One country, Two systems has great vitality,” he added.
Details around the trip have been kept tightly under wraps, and the visit has sparked a massive security effort.
Government leaders have been forced into an anti-COVID “closed-loop” system, parts of the city shut down, and multiple journalists barred from Friday events that will showcase the Communist Party’s control over the city after a political crackdown that dismantled a democracy movement and crushed dissent.
The Chinese leader will likely spend the night in neighbouring Shenzhen on the mainland.
Those coming into Xi’s orbit during the trip, including the highest-ranking government officials, have been made to limit their social contacts, take daily PCR tests and check into a quarantine hotel in the days leading up to the visit.
“To play safe, if we are going to meet the paramount leader and other leaders in close quarters, I think it is worthwhile to go into the closed-loop arrangements,” veteran pro-Beijing politician Regina Ip told AFP.
TIGHT SECURITY
Authorities have moved to eliminate any potential source of embarrassment during Xi’s time in the city, with national security police making at least nine arrests over the past week.
The League of Social Democrats (LSD), one of Hong Kong’s few remaining opposition groups, said it will not demonstrate on July 1 after national security officers spoke with volunteers associated with the group.
LSD leaders told AFP their homes had been searched, and that they had also had conversations with the police.
Chan Po-ying, the group’s president, said that over the last few days she had begun to feel that she was being followed and watched.
“In the past, there was something like this too, but not as bad as this year,” the veteran activist said.
Hong Kong’s top polling group announced that it would delay publishing the results of a survey that gauged government popularity “in response to suggestions from relevant government departments after their risk assessment”.
The Jul 1 handover anniversary in Hong Kong has traditionally been marked by tens of thousands taking to the streets in peaceful rallies every year.
But mass gatherings have essentially disappeared in Hong Kong over the past few years under a mixture of coronavirus restrictions and a security crackdown aimed at eliminating any public opposition to China’s uncompromising rule over the city.
Source: Channel News Asia
