China’s Xi Jinping on Friday oversaw tightly choreographed celebrations to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of the previous British colony’s handover to Beijing amid a large safety presence.
The ceremony kicked off with a flag-raising occasion at Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor. Incoming chief government John Lee watched as helicopters flew over dangling the flags of China and Hong Kong. A flotilla sprayed plumes of water as troopers hoisted each flags.
Xi didn’t attend this ceremony, native media reported, spending the evening within the neighboring mainland metropolis of Shenzhen.
He was again within the metropolis for the inauguration of Lee’s new authorities.
“After reuniting with the motherland, Hong Kong’s individuals grew to become the masters of their very own metropolis,” Xi mentioned on the ceremony. “Hong Kong’s true democracy began from right here.”
Arriving in Hong Kong a day earlier by high-speed prepare, Xi mentioned: “After the storms, Hong Kong has been reborn from the fireplace and emerged with sturdy vitality.”
This was his first journey out of mainland China for the reason that starting of the COVID pandemic, and the primary to Hong Kong since 2017, when he final took half within the July 1 celebrations.
Heightened safety and no protests
Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese language rule on July 1, 1997. For years, the handover anniversary was marked with peaceable pro-democracy protests by tens of 1000’s of individuals. This yr, nevertheless, authorities are clamping all the way down to eradicate public opposition to China’s rule over the monetary hub.
Authorities deployed a large safety pressure throughout the town as its new chief,Lee, was sworn in to take over the place left open by Carrie Lam.
After taking the oath, Lee mentioned the rule of regulation was a elementary worth for the worldwide monetary heart, hailing a controversial nationwide safety regulation imposed by way of Beijing because the harbinger of stability for Hong Kong.
Lee, the town’s former safety chief, has been sanctioned by the USA over his position in implementing the 2020 nationwide safety regulation, which drastically redefined the definitions of prison acts like “secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with international powers.”
Worldwide skepticism as China hails ‘true democracy’
Critics of the Chinese language authorities, together with Western nations, accuse authorities of trampling on freedoms ensured underneath the “one nation, two techniques” method that assured wide-ranging autonomy and judicial independence for China.
Xi on Friday mentioned the method was profitable underneath China’s “complete jurisdiction.”
“For this sort of good system, there is no such thing as a purpose in any respect to alter it. It have to be maintained over the long run,” he mentioned.
A day earlier, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson mentioned Britain was “not giving up on Hong Kong,” accusing Beijing of failing to maintain its guarantees: “It is a state of affairs that threatens each the rights and freedoms of Hongkongers and the continued progress and prosperity of their house.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed Washington’s solidarity with the individuals of Hong Kong as they expertise what he known as an “erosion of autonomy” underneath Chinese language rule.
“It’s now evident that Hong Kong and Beijing authorities not view democratic participation, elementary freedoms, and an impartial media,” Blinken mentioned in a press release, calling for individuals’s private freedoms to be restored.
“Australia stays deeply involved by the persevering with erosion of Hong Kong’s rights, freedoms and autonomy, two years for the reason that imposition of the Nationwide Safety Legislation,” the nation’s international minister, Penny Wong, mentioned on Friday.
Beijing rejects such accusations.
see/msh (Reuters, AP, AFP)