China’s president, Xi Jinping, on Friday oversaw tightly choreographed celebrations to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of the previous British colony’s handover to Beijing amid an enormous safety presence.
“After reuniting with the motherland, Hong Kong’s individuals grew to become the masters of their very own metropolis,” Xi mentioned on the inauguration of the town’s new authorities. “Hong Kong’s true democracy began from right here.”
Celebrations kicked off with a flag-raising occasion at Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor. Incoming chief govt 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 night time within the neighboring mainland metropolis of Shenzhen. However he was again within the metropolis for Lee’s swearing-in.
Including that there was no cause to alter Hong Kong’s “one nation, two techniques” system of governance, Xi on Friday mentioned it was profitable underneath China’s “complete jurisdiction.”
“For this sort of good system, there isn’t a cause in any respect to alter it. It should be maintained over the long run,” he mentioned.
Arriving in Hong Kong a day earlier by high-speed prepare, Xi mentioned: “After the storms, Hong Kong has been reborn from the hearth and emerged with strong 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 hundreds of individuals. This yr, nevertheless, authorities are clamping right down to remove public opposition to China’s rule over the monetary hub.
Authorities deployed an enormous safety power 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 basic 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 america over his function in implementing the 2020 nationwide safety regulation, which drastically redefined the definitions of legal 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” system that assured wide-ranging autonomy and judicial independence for China.
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, basic freedoms, and an unbiased 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)